Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
This blog post is the result of our well known regular contributor Blouise sending me a link, sent to her by one of our other long time contributors GBK. I thank them for not only the vital information they shared with me, but also for the inspiration it gave me. When people ask me what kind of blog to I write for, I explain to them that it is the creation of the well-known Constitutional Law Professor and Civil Rights Advocate Jonathan Turley. The common thread that links most of us here is our support for Jonathan’s work and our belief in upholding the Constitution. The topic raises is vital to all of those purposes.
On May 4th, 1970 I was twenty-six years old. I worked for NYC’s Department of Social Services (welfare) as a caseworker in Brooklyn. Was active in the Peace Movement and had in the last year lost in my bid for the Presidency of the radical welfare caseworkers union. Long haired, full bearded and habitually wearing shirts open to almost my waist, with tight-fitting bell bottom jeans. I was a happy and carefree imbiber of psychedelics and had a great social life. I had failed my Draft physical four years prior due to high blood pressure, which would later turn into severe heart trouble requiring me to have a transplant, but back then I was just grateful that I didn’t have to make the choice between my ideals and the Selective Service Law. So many young men whose lives were drastically changed for the worse by being drafted into that conflict, were less lucky than I because they were my contemporaries, I felt I needed to help bring them home.
Even with the 60’s decade of assassinations, Civil Rights protests ending in violence, Nixon’s election and the Viet Nam escalation, I was still hopeful that my generation would really change things for the better in this country and that the future would bring great changes in economic freedom and social justice. So hopeful was I, that I was attending my first year of Law School at night and envisioned myself becoming a Legal Aid attorney in the future. Then I heard the news about Kent State, the murder of four students and shooting of nine during what was a relatively peaceful protest. Suddenly, this brought home to me the reality of what we were facing in our country. My optimism for change died that day, but not my commitment to fight for it.
As the news proliferated the story just didn’t add up. Supposedly the young National Guardsmen heard sniper shots and in a panic returned fire. That the students shot were at a distance of at least three hundred feet and the ammunition was armor-piercing rounds. It was claimed that there was no order to fire given and that the young National Guardsmen thought they were firing in self defense. As it turned out these were lies and propaganda foisted to cover the fact that those in power in the administration and their follower, the Republican Governor of Ohio, wanted to send a message to those opposing the War, that we were in mortal danger if we dared to try to thwart their murderous rampage in South East Asia.
“The killing of protesters at KentState changed the minds of many Americans about the role of the US in the Vietnam War. Following this massacre, there was an unparalleled national response: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed across America in a student strike of more than four million. Young people across the nation had strong suspicions the Kent State massacre was planned to subvert any further protests arising from the announcement that the already controversial war in Vietnam had expanded into Cambodia.
Yet instead of attempting to learn the truth at Kent State, the US government took complete control of the narrative in the press and ensuing lawsuits. Over the next ten years, authorities claimed there had not been a command-to-fire at Kent State, that the ONG had been under attack, and that their gunfire had been prompted by the “sound of sniper fire.” Instead of investigating Kent State, the American leadership obstructed justice, obscured accountability, tampered with evidence, and buried the truth. The result of these efforts has been a very complicated government cover-up that has remained intact for more than forty years.”
You will find the article the paragraph above is quoted from if you follow the link below. The link will lead you to an article entitled: “Kent State: Was It about Civil Rights or Murdering Student Protesters?” This was written by: Laurel Krause with Mickey Huff and is from a forthcoming book: Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution. “Laurel Krause is a writer and truth seeker dedicated to raising awareness about ocean protection, safe renewable energy, and truth at Kent State. She publishes a blog on these topics at Mendo Coast Current. She is the co-founder and director of the Kent State Truth Tribunal. Before spearheading efforts for justice for her sister Allison Krause, who was killed at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, Laurel worked at technology start-ups in Silicon Valley.”
By the way, my Law School was one of the schools shut down in response to the Kent State Massacre and I was active in the movement to shut it down for the semester as a memorial to those dead and wounded students. Then as now, I saw these killings as premeditated murder in the service of stifling dissent in our country. I urge you to take the time to read this article linked below and its proofs that these murderous shootings, were done under orders and with malice aforethought. As much as our Presidential contenders extol America’s unique status in the world, they are mute to the barely hidden agenda that is destroying what we purport to be our ideals of freedom and justice. The article below gives lie to one wicked truth of our history and should be a sobering reminder of the way things really are:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/kent-state-was-it-about-civil-rights-or-%E2%80%A8murdering-student-protesters/
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/17/a-real-history-of-the-last-sixty-two-years/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/04/01/defending-our-freedoms/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/05/05/what-the/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/06/23/missing-the-point-when-the-point-is-obvious/
Here are the lyrics to the kid’s song in the video:
Imagine an America
Where strip mines are fun and free
Where gays can be fixed
And sick people just die
And oil fills the sea
We don’t have to pay for freeways!
Our schools are good enough
Give us endless wars
On foreign shores
And lots of Chinese stuff
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you
We haven’t killed all the polar bears
But it’s not for lack of trying
The Earth is cracked
Big Bird is sacked
And the atmosphere is frying
Congress went home early
They did their best we know
You can’t cut spending
With elections pending
Unless it’s welfare dough
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And we’re kinda blaming you
Find a park that is still open
And take a breath of poison air
They foreclosed your place
To build a weapon in space
But you can write off your au pair
It’s a little awkward to tell you
But you left us holding the bag
When we look around
The place is all dumbed down
And the long term’s kind of a drag
We’re the children of the future
American through and through
But something happened to our country
And yeah, we’re blaming you
You did your best
You failed the test
Mom and Dad We’re blaming you!
Virginia is looking good for Obama and Kaine. Maybe, they don’t want George “macaca” Allen back.
oops … wants
Romney’s people have been told to put on a happy face and Obama’s team want his supporters to worry so they will work harder, Nick. My husband is calling into Florida as I type. It is too close too call.
If I listened to my kids @ that age they would have been staying up all night, eating candy, and watching MTV. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and desperation. I love to read body language and listen to nuances in language. I’ve been watching both campaign’s operatives and the Sunday morning shows. The Obama campaign is sweating. Gnash your teeth and call me an idiot, but that’s my read on the campaign @ this moment. It could change. The hurricane could work to Obama’s advantage. But as of 10/28/12 5:02p CDT, that’s my take.
Here is a new ad featuring children singing. Listen to the lyrics closely. This is a powerful message. If the wingnuts happen to win, these kids have reason to be concerned.
I am not a capitalist, nor an investor but I figured this out recently. It may help others or may be disproven.
We mostly focus on the company execs who we believe
are the overpaid drones who do terrible things to the detriment of the employees and yes even customers. Well we are right so far.
But there are other layers of control of the company:
Board of Directors appointed by…
Major owners ie investors and….
The market composed of large but not major invesrors: finance, insurance and in Europe pension funds.
Now all ot these look at one indicator: ROI Return on Investment.
If the company has bad ROI, then the money leaves, the stock price goes down, and the major owners take a hit, board members get fired, and so do executives.
So who steers the company? The market.
Just recently Bill Clinton was linked here from an interview on Fox News. One of the first things he mentioned was that upon becoming President that he found out that the USA was in bad money shape, and he did not have room for the things he had promised and hoped to do. He had to fix the money problems first or the ship might start sinking.
So it works all the way up. All are competing on the same ROI market. Go to it execs, beat the slaves.
Stop listening to customer complaints.
Now TonyC will come in as he has done before and show how he as a CEO would do it better.
Welcome TonyC. Take us for a nice airplane ride.
Thinking of JYs: things that tick me off—-for example.
Am on the wrong thread again. Just following GeneH and Bron with my nose to the ground, like a beagle with the rabbit 5 yards away in clear sight, but the nose does not see it.
I think what you don’t want is a communist outcome, Bron, but that extreme system is just as unworkable as laissez-faire capitalism albeit for slightly different reasons that are primarily rooted in the reality of human behavior. As far as socialism not working, well, you’ve previously been pointed to examples were it has worked just fine as part of a blended economy. However, since you admit that “there were problems”, you need to realize that those problems were rooted in a lack of regulation and exacerbated by a lack of social programs and that somewhere between the extremes of non-functional communism and the open invitation to abuse that is laissez-faire capitalism is where the answers reside. It’s a choice on a spectrum, not a binary choice of all one or the other. And like the dynamic between maximized freedom and justice, it’s a balancing act.
To relate this back to the topic at hand, the order to fire is a perfect example of what happens when the interests of business (in this case the business of war) conflict with both the freedom and the will of the people. Laissez-faire capitalism has no duty to the freedoms and the will of the people. Its only duty is the bottom line of profit and it isn’t shy about making blood money.
I dont deny there were some problems with industry during the growth of this country but a good many people were raised out of poverty and given a fantastic standard of living because of capitalism.
Socialism doesnt do that and cannot do that. The “socialist” countries which do well, do well to the extent they allow free markets to work.
I dont want a socialist outcome, I want laissez faire capitalism and I dont think paying workers well has anything to do with socialism. Why wouldnt you pay your people well so that you can beat the competition?
“When you voluntary pay your people well, that is not socialism.”
Yeah, Bron, because history shows that laissez-faire capitalism did such a good job paying their workers a living wage and looking out for the employees interests so well that instituting a legal minimum wage became political and economic necessity. Oh, and child labor laws. And safety standards.
Yeah. Those capitalists have a heart of gold alright.
Free doesn’t mean free to exploit and generally screw over whomever you please in the name of profits while trusting that you as a laissez-faire capitalist will simply “do the right thing” without coercion when a profit is to be taken.
Your statement indicates you want socialist outcomes (workers should be involved in the bounty capitalism has to offer) without some of the necessary costs (social systems and restrictions on market behaviors) based on the belief that is simply contrary to what human nature and history have shown to be the case.
Gene:
no, it is called freedom. That is what capitalism is all about. In a free market would you want to be the guy in your industry who paid crappy wages?
When you voluntary pay your people well, that is not socialism.
If I had any doubts about how this country is run then Russ Baker’s Bush book is one source.
The other source touches on Bush as President maker, not “Dubja” but Romney. I think it urgent that all see it. so reposting tho link, which I believe Anonymouslyt posted put up.
Take the time. More thrills, strike that, chills than you’ve had for a while.
The question remaining is how do they share power? And how do they control all the elements like the thousands (alleged here) black op groups. One of which did JFK.
This will be brief, my supper is warm.
Read it all from Dredd’s response to my queries, and MikeS reference to me.
I have to re-read it all from Dredd’s mind-opening first comment.
But let me assure MikeS, that I have not given up, neither the fight nor the hope that the Obama-way will give us more time to fight. I say at times, it is hopeless, not to defeat the life-energy of others, but to AROUSE it. To touch on that spot within us that says as long as I live, I will fight to live.
But, perhaps that is a bad tactic to judge from your reaction to it.
Am I the oldest here? And is ARE the only vet besides me? Where were you and when ARE.
And to KF, keep it on the carpet. No FOS please.
And OS, full of his stuff comes in with an absolutely important thingy that others ignore.
Thank you all for keeping the noise and blood pressure down. As one said of me: it was easier to hear when I spoke. So be it with you too (collectively).
PS to Dredd. Never mention disease symptoms in the presence of some people. They immediately get them as well as to all else that they have “caught”.
Now what was it that persons with toxo did???????
Is that why I love cats?
Mike,
Free and fair elections do mean something. Our elections are becoming ever less free and fair. That being said, elections also only have meaning if those elected to represent actually represent the people in an egalitarian manner and not a corporatist oligarchy with a greed distorted agenda and no duty whatsoever to the general welfare.
“Bron 1, October 28, 2012 at 1:09 pm
Dredd:
except that you have many capitalists like me who believe that workers should be involved in the bounty capitalism has to offer.”
Eh hem . . . that’s socialism, Bron. Some kind of fantasy voluntary socialism that depends on the largess of private ownership and privatized infrastructure, but socialism at its core nonetheless. And I don’t think “many” was an accurate word choice.
Dredd:
except that you have many capitalists like me who believe that workers should be involved in the bounty capitalism has to offer.
No man can do it all himself, to build a business it takes people who are willing to help you build your dream. Granted it would not come to reality without the entrepreneur but he still needs the help of other people to implement his dream.
Look at most of the tech companies, they pay well to attract top talent and have nice perks to keep talent.
Although you could also make the case that there is high demand for good tech workers and so high salaries would make sense.
But paying your people well makes good sense not only from a business standpoint, you can hire the best, but also from a sense of fair play.
Mike Spindell 1, October 28, 2012 at 12:14 pm
“All of the GIANT antiwar marches during Vietnam were largely organized by the SWP (Socialist Workers Party) and the broad coalition they mustered called NPAC (National Peace Action Coalition).”
Karl,
From their and your perspective it may have seemed that you were leading the parade, but your faction was merely one of the players. Now that you’ve admitted it, I’l explain why I have great distaste for you of the Marxist persuasion/analysis (perhaps Trotskyites may be more exact in your case). You are like the blind-men and the elephant. Depending on what you touch upon you have clarity, but the blindness in your case is the rigidity of your analytic tools. You are constrained to see the world in terms of economic perspective and therefore you miss that the driving force in tyranny of all sorts is psychological. …
Also Dredd seems to have understood that I used the word “some” for a specific reason:
“But in Mike S’s defense he agrees with us to the extent he wrote “some” of them hated troops who did not resist, indicating that not all of them did.”
Interestingly, despite your protestations to the contrary, most of that hatred was expressed that hatred was expressed ….. by the many Marxists that I knew at the time, after their recruitment efforts failed, as they hated me for the same reason.
===========================================
I don’t know about Karl’s political persuasion, but I have pointed out that Karl Marx had a brighter expectation of American resistance to the Plutocracy than I had, and still do have:
(The Impact of Toxins of Power On Evolution, links removed). I can say that your observations of Karl Marx which formed your criticism (Marx’s perception that relevant problems we are addressing are all economic, rather than psychological) is well informed IMO.
For one reason, as my quote points out, Karl Marx’s study and writings preceded Sigmund Freud, the significant cognitive revolutionary who got that psychological analysis ball rolling.
I suggest that KF read Fred Halstead’s book OUT NOW! an insiders account of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Fred does NOT make the claim that the SWP was the main force in the anti-war movement, but it was the main organization that kept all elements together and focused on the war. The Moratorium was the largest anti-war demonstration in our history with Apr 24 under NPAC coming in a close second with over one million people. The SWP respected other political points of view and sought to incorporate them into the mass demonstrations. We even had anti-war Republicans involved since the only two Senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf resolution were Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening. The SWP was without question the glue that kept this coalition together and provided the cadre to make it work. We were NOT the main force though which came out in those demonstrations. The SWP probably could have put forward its program as the focus of the demonstrations since we had more than enough people and votes at conferences to do that. Instead the united front principle was used to great effect as opposed to the popular front of the CP.
Karl:
you have some interesting ideas on some issues.
I even agree with you on a couple of your points on this thread.
Mike Spindell 1, October 28, 2012 at 10:32 am
Dredd,
I agree with much of what you write, not convinced on microbes, but then ultimate causation has never been my interest, rather my focus is on the effect.
================================================
Well, I will be the first to say that I have not yet found the link between the toxins of power and microbes.
However, I have found that world renown professors, who are also practising scientists in cutting edge laboratories which they manage, have found an undeniable link between microbes, the human brain, and more specifically insane behavior:
(Hypothesis: Microbes Generate Toxins of Power – 6, quoting Dr. Robert Sapolsky). This microbe induced behavior is absolutely not “wired” genetically, rather, it is surgically instilled by a microbe that can do what “25,000 neuroscientists standing on each other’s shoulders” cannot do.
I will keep searching for that missing link that causes honorable, faithful soldiers to keep repeating the same murderous, heinous, inhumane, and degrading behavior such as shooting down innocent American students at Kent State in the name of “holy warrior freedom fighting.”
Karl, Many of us are going to very unhappy if Romney wins, and he very well could. I guess you and Donald Trump will be celebrating. I sure hope you are very very rich.