2 weeks ago we were down in Florida due to our dad passing away from the virus. Got home Monday and the next day we learned that our eldest cousin, my uncle’s firstborn, passed away suddenly. A few days later my buddy Stretch called me crying because he just learned his 30 year old nephew had died. A few days later our drummer Infinito learned that his mom had died from the virus down in Bolivia. We spoke this morning, both of us crying. He’s devastated. Justifiably so.
As I type all this it seems impossible that it can all be real. Denial. I’ve been sick with various maladies for a few weeks. Saw four different doctors this week. Hard to even keep track of the different things we’re talking to the doctors about. It’s occurred to me that this physical breakdown is probably due to the impossible task of trying to mentally and emotionally integrate this bombardment of tragedy and death everywhere.
One death overshadows the one before and so on. And then you come back to that prior one. And then back to the next one and the next. An endless cycle.
What I’ve been trying to do at a minimum is stay in touch with family and friends as much as possible to communicate with and support them through this hard time. Physically I’m down for the count. I think that’s part of the process. Mentally I’m in a foggy daze. Not even aure what I feel. I know what I’m supposed to feel. But it’s too much. Too heavy.
My brother texted me earlier and just wrote “horrible times man” about all of it. There’s a part of me that wants to acknowledge that. Hard to argue with it. Another part of me wants to believe that any minute we’re going to come out of it and everything is going to be great again. And admittedly things are “great” for some people; those who haven’t been touched in any way by the virus.
Though I do believe we were all traumatized if not permanently scarred by the surreal insanity and horror of the last four years we just came out of. For many of us we weren’t around for the tragedy and chaos of the 60s or vietnam or watergate etc. These were just stories we read about years later. We didn’t fully understand the deep seated trauma those years had on society or each person individually. It really wasn’t until the last few years that we had a personal experience of it ourselves.
That kind of shock and horror. A visceral experience. The way it kept builidng, each day worse than the last, going to bed each night and waking up everyday for years terrified of what we’d hear next from the White House. The way it continued to get worse and worse and culminated in a horrific tragic and terrifying ending on January 6th.
I’d like to report that the survival of the republic as evidenced by the surreal inauguration healed all the wounds inflected. Granted it was a relief. They tried hard. They did their best. We all did. But we’ll always look back at those weeks as a swirling mess of emotions. How could we not? We had just come out of the capital riots and mass deaths were still circling our day to day lives hourly.
As valiant an attempt as the inauguration tried to be — and it had many moments, it couldn’t, and shouldn’t, dispel the shock we had and have all lived through. A part of me feels that we owe it to ourselves and to those who passed to remember. To grieve. To mourn. To contemplate. Not forever perhaps. But definitely not cut it too short.
Frankly I’m not sure I’d be able to cut it short even if I wanted to. I’m trying to do what’s right. To feel what’s right. To be respectful of the near half a million of our fellow citizens who have died this past year.
And as well to honor the anger I feel toward the pansy-assed members of the GOP who didn’t have the courage or nobility to stand up for what’s right or sacred in our democracy. I miss guys like John McCain a lot. Mitt Romney comes to mind. Thank God for him. But we need more of them. It can’t just be 5 to 10 Republicans out of tens of millions who see things straight. What’s to stop it from happening again?
I can hear friends now advising me that I’m confusing and conflating the issues. This mass explosion of death all around us with the deeply divided politics destroying us from within. But it’s hard for me not to. Both events have deeply affected us. I’ll never dismissively ignore division or coups or civil wars in other countries again, as if “it’s not my business”.
Nor will I ever again take for granted the cooperative peace and unity we enjoy in the U.S. That’s something to cherish and work on maintaining. It’s a noble goal.
In my mind i keep hearing that scene from All That Jazz play… “Death man… death man… Death is in… death is in….” If we picture the Vietnam memorial in DC, as large and foreboding as it is, we’d need ten of those to honor the fallen of just the past year. None of us are getting away from that reality unscathed. Only the coldest and most heartless among us perhaps.
Don’t get me wrong. I want to. I’m beyond overwhelmed and over it like everyone else. People are now starting to talk about the coming “roaring 20s”… I find it hard to go there still being surrounded by so many passing. It feels disrespectful.
In Tenet, people from the future are willing to destroy everyone in the past in order to save themselves in the future. Part of me feels like that’s what we’re trying to do now… Sacrificially ignoring everyone who has stacked up in the afterlife in order to move on with all of us who are “still alive”.
But that may just be part of the grieving and integration process. I get that. I think it may come down to those who have lost someone and those who haven’t. At some point we do all have to move on. If we had any hard proof of an afterlife maybe we could pick and choose… But we don’t. So the only thing we do have is our innate instinct as organic life forms to keep going, here, in life. We owe it to them I suppose. Or not. I’m torn about that theory frankly. Again, probably part of the grieving process.
I guess what it comes down to for me is this deeply rooted feeling that we need to do our absolute best to honor those who passed this past 12 months.
We didn’t do a good job of it over the last year. Due to inept leadership we ignored and denied and dishonored our dead because it wasn’t “politically convenient”. It was the greatest shared national shame I’ve ever experienced since I’ve been alive.
Luckily that’s changed. But we still have work to do. We need to acknowledge our shared loss, name them in our hearts and out loud, remember them, honor them, recognize that it’s okay that we miss them and love them and mourn for them. And then eventually, hopefully, we can all heal.
You’ve Been Warned –The Coming New American Revolution
It is illegal for TV networks to raise the volume of commercials higher than the shows they air. For obvious reasons. (It wouldn’t be fair to the TV shows, giving the commercials a higher priority would lift the disguise that television networks exist to entertain rather than generate profits for shareholders.) So what they do instead is flip on a compressor during commercials, for an extra fee to the sponsor — guaranteeing a louder commercial. Theoretically the network is not “turning up the volume”, but the effect is a much louder fuller more annoying volume for said commercial. Which anyone who watches television even infrequently has surely noticed. It’s a technicality. It bypasses the law while pretending to still be abiding by the law. This is a common practice at every network and is common knowledge in the industry. But no one gets in any trouble for it.
This should come as no surprise. Americans are used to these kinds of practices by the powers that be. There is a boldly glaring double standard and hypocrisy that Americans live with everyday and accept as “just the way it is”. Anyone and everyone with wealth or in power breaks the rules or breaks the law however and whenever they can and somehow always manage to get away with it. Rather than jail time or a reminder of the rules laws or regulations they’ve broken, and certainly rather than any kind of substantive punishment, they find a technicality or at worst a small fine at the end of their rainbow of a trial, IF they even get that far. Usually these rules and laws that the common people are forced to be bound by are easily able to be skipped entirely by the elite; corporations and government officials included.
It is THIS kind of blatant disregard for the law, much less the desires of The People, that has now become the norm in all arenas of American life. Banks hospitals insurance companies drug makers stores police departments cable and internet providers giant tech companies like Apple and especially government. It is capitalism run amok rampant and extreme, arrogant and crass –creating the highest profits for those who can pay and causing the most harm and suffering for those who cannot.
In the United States we have reached the peak phase of the capitalist cycle, just before The People revolt and demand fairness justice and balance. This is usually a sloppy messy bloody affair, a no mercy and no quarter for those in power scenario gets created. Many perish. In a very short period of time regular everyday working people will be shooting at and arresting not only the hundreds of thousands of crooked police officers of the country, but any and all who work in government or in large greedy corporations who’ve raped one too many trusting unsuspecting consumers. In these revolutions the people rise up against the powers that be not just because they are angry — for it is safe to say that Americans are far beyond anger at this point, but because they feel it is their duty to take back a country that all of us once dearly loved respected and cherished. But only the most simple and foolish among us now feel any sense of love or respect for what America has turned into over the last fifty plus years. Not through any fault of our own and not without desperately trying to turn things around. No one can say that the people didn’t try. But clearly our hands have been tied, in red tape, bureaucracy and bullshit for decades.
The government of the U.S., already seeing where we are historically in the capitalist cycle, has prepared for this inevitable cultural shift. Hence the gradual but rapid change into the police state we now live in. It is all of our wishes that the state local and federal governments of our beloved country realize and accept that although we will rise up en masse to bring this system down in order to create a more just fair enlightened and equitable society REGARDLESS of their opinion or any actions they may decide to take, we do NOT wish to hurt or kill anyone, nor do we desire to do away with our free enterprise system. No one is crying out for communism or any other extreme social reforms. Only truth. We only wish to stop the blatant lies, deceptions and manipulations of the law that we have all come to begrudgingly accept and take for granted as being an inherent aspect of the world we live in.
We understand full well, just as the government does, that it does NOT have to be this way. After all, our government officials and the mainstream media who do their bidding act and speak as if they live in a completely different world than the rest of us; they speak of “American Exceptionalism”, a land of the free and home of the brave; they never out the president of the United States for his incessant lying and bending of the truth; they never mention the heartbreaking irony that the U.S. is by far the most powerful terrorist force and the most feared and notorious killing machine on planet earth when they report on “terrorism” on the nightly news; they don’t speak of the fact that the alleged elected government spends billions of dollars a year giving it away in bribes or blackmail schemes to hundreds of other countries around the globe but turn around and claim that they can’t afford to feed the hungry or starving right here at home, nor afford to educate them; they don’t mention that the United States Congress exists now almost solely to provide cushy jobs for power hungry, egomaniacal greed-hounds whose job it is to provide favors, loopholes and profit opportunities for the large multi-national corporations who now completely run and control the country. If one listened to the media they might believe for a minute at least that the members of congress were being elected by the people to work for the will of the people — until reality snuck back into the conversation and everyone landed back on earth acknowledging the ridiculousness of that erroneous idea. It’s been a long time since any congress has been able to list serving the people as a line item on their resume.
So there is no excuse for how unbearably inexcusably bad things have gotten in America. The dichotomy between how the government and media speak about the United States and how it actually is in reality is as wide as the Grand Canyon. So it’s no wonder that people are beyond mad. Everyday the harsh reality of the wickedness that surrounds us, all the while with the arrogance and audacity to dare call itself good, is thrown in our face. At the same time not a man woman or child in America is unaware of how dangerous or life threatening it would be to dare break a law themselves. The peoples’ job is to obey the laws, pay the taxes and say nothing while watching those in control break the laws, profligately spend the peoples’ taxes and say and do whatever the hell they want to regardless of how illegal criminal or immoral it may be.
This is no secret. Unlike in times long past this is the topic du jour in almost every home, office, school and community from coast to coast. The disapproval, the disgust and the outrage spans all age groups, all income brackets except the very rich perhaps, all races, all genders and everyone else in between. The powers that be are just as aware of this reality as the people are. Both sides pretending not to notice the other’s disdain for the system that both have created. One through sheer force of will selfishness and greed, the other, the people, through fear and resistance to accepting the cold hard truth that the kingdom is not royal nor noble, but rotten and wicked. Even the worst offenders are now having a tough time keeping a straight face. Somewhere along the line America lost itself. Forgot it’s mission. And it’s been spinning blindly madly out of control ever since.
Which is why in the long run it is inevitable not only that we the people WILL rise up soon but that WE will win. It would be in every one’s best interest if this idea were accepted sooner rather than later by the various branches of government throughout the nation. If they act in time, with sincerity and effectiveness, a full scale revolution of the magnitude described above might be able to be avoided. But it needs to happen fast. The confusion and frustration of even the common working person has now turned into cynical bitterness, anger and rage. In a country of 350 million people all fueled by these shared emotions, no sitting government, no matter how powerful they think they are, stands a chance of survival. Our revolution will make the Civil War seem like child’s play.
It is important that every man woman and child who lives in and loves the United States of America shares this message with their elected leaders. We may not owe it to them. Lord knows they’ve done nothing to deserve our humanity, having done nothing for us in decades and would certainly not extend to us the same courtesy. But it is more in line with the kinder, more just, fair-minded and enlightened society that WE wish to create.
The deadline for serious change is fast approaching. Consider yourselves warned. The people are beyond angry. They are incensed and inflamed. And the myriad distractions once so effective no longer distract. Instead they only add more fuel to the fire. The people, feeling helpless to effect change through democratic means and thus backed into a corner with nothing left to lose are not only ready for war. They are preparing for it. You have been warned.
– Posted by The Ambassador
America Just Doesn’t Care That Much About Black People
In regards to comments flying around online and in the media about black people over the last few days, I must confess it does lead one to come up with one conclusion more than any other. And that is that as a nation America just doesn’t care that much about black people. Or put a different way, most people in America just don’t care about black people. There I said it. Someone had to. Im not the first and I certainly won’t be the last. People are saying it all over the country at the moment. At least those who are paying attention. And that’s the key to this whole thing: America cares so little about black people that not that many people are even discussing this issue. Most of the people who are are black. And that’s insane considering that not just one but two unarmed Americans were killed in cold blood by cops in the last 30 days.
Just compare the response to these last two murders of unarmed black men by police to almost anything else going on around the country or the world… Those are the last things anyone is thinking about. The american media and the people are talking about the protests in Ferguson Missouri more than they’re talking about the actual cause of the protests. It’s a nightly public spectacle akin to a circus, everybody tuning in each evening to see what those crazy people down in Missouri will do next.
American citizens murdered in plain view by police. Yet no one cares. Just imagine if Erik Gardner — strangled to death by four cops in New York City last month — would have been a WHITE husband and father trying to make ends meet… The response would have been catastrophically different. It would be front page news all over the world! “New York Police Strangle Unarmed Father of Five To Death!” But because he was black… That’s a different story entirely. The truth is that NO ONE EVEN KNOWS WHO ERIK GARDNER IS.
Remember Jon Bennett Ramsey? That cute little white beauty queen girl who went missing 20 years ago? The country went crazy! That drama and saga went on for decades and prompted countless fortunes for countless people, the media, the family, people writing books about it, TV specials, etc etc. Erik Gardner — strangled to death on the street like an animal by four cops live on a camera phone?!?! NOTHING. Except protests from the black community. It might as well not have happened.
I think it’s something that we just need to face about America. Black people are at best an endured leftover from days gone by… A former means to end but still around. Americans needed them, so they used them, and then when they no longer were allowed to use them as they needed, they set them free and said “alright we’re done with you. So go on and get out of here. But there’s no law that says that we have to CARE”.
And since the great Emancipation Proclamation that’s how it’s been. A very small freedom where they’ve had to fight and claw and struggle for every new right, law, liberty or privilege they’ve begrudgingly been given by the white powers that be. We must remember that the Civil Rights Act didn’t come with any law that said that America had to care. They just weren’t allowed to hang black people up on trees or beat them in the city streets or segregate them from society anymore.
Another way to look at America’s view of black people perhaps is as an unfortunate token that America tries to make the best of. Americans have very specific token roles they place black people into: here’re our token black comedians. Here’re our token black singers and musicians. Here are our token black athletes. (This is very Romanesque, the way that white America sits up on their bleachers and in their private boxes making large bets on and throwing wads of cash at these modern day gladiators as they perform for everyone down in the center of the ring…) And look here: we even have a token black president! Okay well he’s half black anyway. But still! Doesn’t that surely prove that we’ve overcome our bigotry and racist tendencies and can formally announce to the world the heralding of a new more evolved America where all men truly are equal?
But again it’s all for show. It’s a token. A trifle. Smoke and mirrors. Take a look at the actual statistics revolving around the average black American and the image looks completely different. It gets skewed and blurred from the token affection we appear to show for black people on the surface. The PRIMARY purpose of African American males in America today seems to be to fill up prisons in order to generate profits for the industrialized prison business. This is not to say that ALL black men MUST serve this purpose. It’s certainly not mandatory. And no one is saying or implying that. It’s just made very easy to imprison black men. So much so that the majority of people IN prison in America are black men. This of course leads to an all too predictable absence of men in the black communities all over America which leads to a whole host of problems waiting to happen long before they do. It becomes a circular problem that can never resolve.
Now if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re of the same mind and spirit of the kind of people who DO care about black people. Not because they’re black. But because they’re people. But we mustn’t let that compel us to believe that the rest of the country feels the same way we do. The majority of people, or better put, the majority of the people in power seem to put up with them more than care about them… America throws them a little assistance here and there in the form of welfare, food stamps, affirmative action and Medicaid. That seems to make everyone feel like “it’s all okay with the black people”; but their lives don’t seem to be valued the same way that other people’s are. If they were, we certainly wouldn’t be in a situation like this yet again, another young black boy killed in cold blood long before the prime of his life and a country at odds with itself wondering what the hell are we going to do now?
See, we have to begin to get real about this issue. The plain simple truth of this issue is this: both Gardner and Brown were unarmed, did not pose a threat, weren’t even doing anything wrong in fact, but were both murdered. In reality it doesn’t really matter who killed them. White or black. Nor does it matter too much that the alleged killers happened to be cops. What really matters is what we are going to do as a nation about these deaths — considering that it’s against the law to kill people.
It seems that every time a black person gets killed in America — especially if it’s by a white person — their life means a little less than if they were white. The law against murder doesn’t seem to apply if the person who was murdered is black. This may or may not be the case in reality. But this is certainly how it seems to the world. Trayvon Martin was just one example — a very public one — of this anomalous exception to the law; it showed clearly how little we value life in America if that life happens to be of color. The Trayvon case shocked the country. And the world looked on with horror. How the hell can they allow a man to get off Scott-free who freely admitted to shooting and killing an unarmed teenage boy? Oooohhhh, he was BLACK…. Oh okay, we get it. And that seems to be how it is in America today. Not much different than it was one-hundred years ago. Look at this way: as of this writing, the four police officers who strangled Erik Gardner to death in broad daylight were still going to work every day. This is by all accounts an insane reality. And no, there’s no way in hell this would be the case if Gardner had been a white girl, as opposed to a black male.
– Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Rebuild America or White House Jihad?
I usually refrain from posting in the Transcendence Diaries on September 11th, or making any major or minor statements about it one way or the other; precisely because of the reason that compelled me to do so this year. The day is as memorialized in the national consciousness of the United States people as any major national holiday at this point. 9/11 is as deeply embedded in the American psyche as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. But unlike other stand-out days of the year, like Christmas or Easter for instance, September 11th cuts across all races and religions and touches every American heart in a profound way. But the reasons why, now, twelve years later, may be different for some people as compared to others; which is what has transformed the day into such a controversial and contentious topic.
This morning as I contemplated these ideas, I realized that there is no better way of illustrating this point personally than to simply do what I always do every year on this day, but with a few slight changes and additions. Every year on September 11th our record label marks the occasion by posting the music video of the song “Rebuild America” on a wide variety of websites across the internet and on social media, as well as emailing it to our fanbase and releasing a national press release. We recorded the song the week after the attacks and released it soon after. The song became an instant favorite with our fans, an emotional touchstone that helped express the grief and desired hopefulness that many were feeling during that time. The following year we decided to begin donating the proceeds from the sales and downloads of the song to The Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City non-profit that has a special chapter solely dedicated to helping the families of 9/11 victims.
As always, here is that music video:
There is no need to go into any of the details of my own personal experiences on that day or that week as many are apt and justified to do today, as all of it has already been written about extensively here in the pages of the Diaries of previous years. [a simple search for 9/11 would bring up all the entries from the last 12 years related to this day, the tragedy, and the song]. By the spring of 2003, many Americans had shifted their attention from mourning the tragedy of 9/11 to protesting and demonstrating along with the rest of the free world the United States’ government’s stated plan to invade the country of Iraq. I participated in several demonstrations across the country that season, from Miami to New York to Washington DC. One thing was certain if anything: though the world grieved and sympathized with us for our losses, they were unanimous in their opposition to our government militarily attacking another country with no direct connection to the 9/11 attacks. The month of March saw the world break every record in humanity’s history books related to the massive numbers of attendees at these demonstrations. Some cities clocked in over two million people marching through the streets carrying signs and banners begging or demanding the United States to not invade Iraq.
Needless to say, democracy did not prevail in that mammoth global endeavor; democracy had been trumped by sheer force of political will and military might. The event had the unfortunate effect of triggering a reversal of the sentiment of the people of the world in regards to the United States of America, from sympathy and empathy to a very palpable anger and resentment, and worse yet it more brightly illuminated the stated reasons the attackers used to justify their attack than any flag burning or jihad message ever could, i.e. the United States was a heartless bullying global superpower with no respect for the sovereignty of other countries and no appreciation for the sanctity of human life; like many empires before it it was an imperialist arrogant and elitist killing machine that deserved to be attacked and stopped at any cost. It was hard to argue with this idea when confronted with it while traveling to other countries over the next few years. The image of George W. Bush had become the face of a new kind of corporate controlled war monger; the American flag the new symbol of 21st century evil. It was an inescapable sentiment that spanned the globe no matter where I traveled over the next few years. Planet earth had found its new villain that the world loved to hate.
By the fall of 2004 a cheap independently produced film entitled LOOSE CHANGE was making its way through the underground and the cognoscenti that portended a seething theory about 9/11 through asking a series of questions about the myriad inconsistencies and mysteries surrounding many of the events before during and after that fateful day. Many of the inconsistencies were just too obvious and eerie to easily dismiss or deny. At the same time hundreds of videos were beginning to appear all over the internet from a variety of different countries that were pointing out the same problems with the official story and asking the same questions. There are now three full length feature films in the LOOSE CHANGE series. And they are only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the vast quantity of films that have been produced now all proposing similar theories… that there is more to the 9/11 story than what was originally reported officially by the American government and media. If you haven’t yet seen these films it would be difficult to think of anything else more important to suggest that one do today. No matter what you’re viewpoint, if any, SEE THESE FILMS, if you care in the least about America or the world and it’s people.
In 2004 it was ludicrous to suggest to anyone outside of your own family that you had any doubts about the official story surrounding 9/11. It was too close, too soon, too sore still. And besides, are you not a patriot? Do you not love America? Have you no shame? Or pride? Flash forward to 2012 and one is hard pressed to not find that at least half of the people you know aren’t skeptical of the official 9/11 story or harboring their own suspicions that something just doesn’t feel right about it. (I hesitate to say this and only do so in order to prove a point, with no egoistic intention whatsoever, despite what it may sound like), but it is not often that I personally encounter anyone who knows as much or more than I do about any so-called underground knowledge or conspiracy theories or unreported facts or truths that haven’t yet reached the mainstream, let alone have anything to teach me or new to share with me. This has nothing to do with any particular gift talent skill or advantage I claim to possess as much as it does the simple fact that I have more desire to study and learn and can afford to and am willing to give up more time attention and effort for it than anything else. It may be the one thing I personally excel at, if anything, being that learning is the one thing besides making love and music that I am more passionate about than anything else in this particular lifetime.
The reason I mention this is because over the last few years, millions of people have surpassed me in their quest to research and collect data regarding the alleged “terrorist attacks” of September 11th. It seems that everyone has their own personal storehouse of unreported details and facts about the event, and their own personal theories as to what exactly happened; millions of people all over the world, from every race, nation, class, economic background and of every age. The hearts and minds of the people of the world have slowly transitioned from shock, sadness and sympathy over that day to doubt cynicism suspicion and skepticism, a lurking uneasy feeling that won’t leave one’s thinking once started on the path of researching the events of that day, that week, that month, that year. It has gone from underground conspiracy theory to mainstream common knowledge that the events as they were officially reported are downright impossible to believe.
As the years wore on, it became more and more challenging to defend the United States of America and its dubious so-called foreign policy. Even if the events of 9/11 as they were officially reported were indisputably true and trustworthy, it was becoming more and more apparent to the world that the United States had metamorphosed into something ghastly inhumane and deadly on a global level. Fear and anger rather than patriotism and envy filled the hearts of many when the subject of the good old USA came up in conversation. In 2005 I had already written and released the music video for the song “White House Jihad”. The stark contrast between this song and “Rebuild America” couldn’t have been more striking. The sentiment of the songs couldn’t be more different. It wasn’t a conscious thing. I’ve never written songs like that; in fact I’ve never done anything with much consciousness or conscience. As anyone can attest, I am more a seat of the pants type. I tell it do it call it as I see it, in each moment, without foresight or regard for consequences.
That video is here:
Just like “Rebuild America”, “White House Jihad” seemed to resonate strongly with a certain group of people. The innocence and blind patriotism of “Rebuild America” had long since dissipated and given way to a new-found realism and self-consciousness that each of us had an inherent responsibility to attempt to stop the bloodshed and madness, whether American or any other nationality. Watching the horrors of war, if one is compassionate, is a grueling experience. Whether it’s the hundreds of thousands killed in the country under attack or the thousands killed or tens of thousands maimed and injured of one’s own country, it doesn’t matter. The horror of war is the most unpleasant aspect of the human condition to consider and behold. I knew “White House Jihad” was a controversial song. I knew it was the furthest thing from patriotism during a time when tens of thousands of our fellow brothers and sisters were in harms way and risking their lives and the welfare of their homes and families. But at the same time I felt like I had to do something, to say something. Marching demonstration protesting wasn’t working.Talking about it wasn’t working. Hell, singing about it didn’t work any better.
But as artists we put it out there, no matter what “it” is, when we feel it. It’s a statement of purpose, a mass, a vigil, an act of defiance and protest, a mission statement. Years pass. Critics have condemned me for the insensitive and disrespectful sentiment of “White House Jihad”, just as others have criticized me for the seemingly ignorant and blind patriotism of “Rebuild America”. It’s a classic “you can’t please everybody all of the time” catch-22. I find it funny now when music critics doing their research to review one of our new albums come across “Rebuild America” and not “White House Jihad” and assume that I am nothing more than the simple naive American flag waver given voice in that song, as if that alone sums up a person. And vice versa. Surely we are all, every single one of us, much more than the momentary feelings and ideas we express in any given hour on any given day. Especially in the context of the state that we live in, as confused and convoluted as it is. It isn’t easy being American in this day and age. Perhaps it never has been.
It is certainly a privilege to be American; the country and its chosen mode of governance offers tremendous freedom and holds great potential. But it is also a heavy burden. Of course we wanted and want to rebuild our America; just not at the expense of others weaker than ourselves. Regardless of what we eventually discover or determine caused the tragic events of 9/11, innocent lives were lost. And that’s a sad thing. The wind got kicked out of us for a few minutes there. Hope was all we had, along with a very human ability to work hard, see beyond our momentary grief and persevere. On the other side of the coin of course we are embittered and angered by the atrocities committed in our name over the last twelve years. Anyone seeing and hearing clearly sees the dire need we have as a country for change and transformation; it’s hanging around our collective neck like a “kick me” sign or a noose. Perhaps it is nothing less than White House jihad that we need to rebuild. A full on revolution of the whole set up. A full cleaning and clearing of the whole house, top to bottom. We don’t say these things out of being unpatriotic or unaware or unappreciative of our many blessings as citizens of this country. Rather we say them out of that same hope and love and pride we felt for the country on the first September 11th all those years ago.
I am sure I am not the only one who harbors this same set of confusing and contradictory beliefs and ideas. They echo through our collective conversations as a country on a daily basis now in every form of media and dialogue available to us. Our emperor lost his wardrobe many years ago and I think almost all of us would do just about anything to see the poor glorious bastard clothed once again. This is what makes today so difficult and challenging for many of us. His nakedness is ours; and in the seat of our soul we long for that pride and respect and sense of honor that we vaguely remember feeling once a long time ago to return. We just aren’t sure how to get there, which makes days like today even more painful than just the mourning and pain over innocent lives lost. The day has taken on a new meaning for us all, not because of what transpired on that day, but on the days and years that immediately followed it since. Somewhere in our future, if we are to have one at all, is a path that will take us to a new-found sense of self respect honor pride and patriotism as American citizens, but more importantly as responsible and respectful citizens of the world.
The Ambassador
Syria: Another Piece of the Puzzle Coming Together
It took a while. Getting to the truth isn’t a simple one off affair. We usually cannot get there sitting in front of the tube listening to what employees of giant corporatocracies have been ordered to report or recite, i.e. newscasters, anchormen, et al. One can say the same about mainstream magazines and newspapers as well, though print journalism usually comes the closest to revealing some truth about most subjects compared to any other form of MSM (mainstream media).
When US Secretary of State John Kerry and president Barack Obama appeared on international television vehemently announcing their grand plan to take military action against Syria we all got the feeling we’d seen this before. And in fact we had. This time the reasoning was “The leader used chemical weapons on his own people.” Neither of them bothered to mention that it was the US who originally sold the chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein that led to his manhunt and execution by public hanging; nor the millions of pounds of Napalm that the US military dropped all over the countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Still, there was something quite odd about how the whole thing went down this time. Usually a US president becomes very resolute when he’s ordered to invade another country. They make their case and hop to it, as the above photo collage illustrates. Obama the man campaigned as a peace making presidential candidate. He quickly erased all hopes of that hollow rhetoric when it was discovered that he had quickly risen to be the all time world record holder for ordering targeted assassinations using drone strikes. He comes off cool and laidback, plays basketball, hangs with celebrities and rappers, smokes ciggies, admits to being a pothead in college. But from nine to five he’s one of the most calculated and ruthless killers the White House has ever been home to. His assassination of Al Awlaki AND his young son (on separate occasions), both being American citizens, without due process or trial, was an unprecedented event in American history.
Now he’s announced he’s after Syria, just as he went after Libya and Qaddafi and his predecessor went after Iraq and Afghanistan. The American people were warned of this plan years ago by General Wesley Clark [see video footage here], that as far back as ‘2001 the United States had already drafted a list that contained a total of 7 countries in the Middle East that it was planning on invading and taking over. Syria was one. Iran will be next.
Because of the strange way that the tag team of Kerry/Obama handled this latest invasion announcement I felt the need to spend some time researching the events led up to it. There was much that did not make sense. Why would a US president make the announcement publicly and ruin the element of surprise? Why did he renege on his tough talk in the final hour and pass the ball to the US Congress but without even calling them in for an emergency session when this was such a “vital matter of national security” as they’d been stating? The British did. And they quickly voted to have no part in this latest American coup lucky them. What of that? How could Obama or Kerry or anyone on earth with half a brain not clearly see that invading Syria when the rebels their government are fighting are comprised of Al Quaeda and other Muslim extremists groups would cause even more uncertainty and chaos in that region and just might be the worst thing for America that could transpire out of all possible outcomes? Or that attacking Syria in any way will certainly involve killing hundreds of innocent civilians there and if anything cause a unification of the Sunnis and Shiites by reminding them of their traditionally vitriolic disdain for America?
For the last few weeks I set about researching the facts and rumors to get a better understanding of what was really happening. CNN MSNBC and FOX News are the three primary 24 hour news sources in the United States at this time, for the record. None are real news services. Unfortunately not even close. Glamorized mouthpieces for various large corporate/banking/government cartels, each with their own slightly different agenda. None try very hard to disguise this fact at the time of this writing. So regardless of how many hours they need to fill all three networks repeat the same two to three bites of data over and over again ad nauseum, offering nothing new or insightful and usually not even coming close to reporting any actual truth or facts about these kinds of events. It’s as horribly frustrating as it is frightening if you’re the least bit educated or knowledgable about world affairs or well traveled. For the time being we’ve the internet and plenty of sources outside the US to gain access to actual news and facts.
There are stories leaking out now from several sources about a visit to Tehran from several US diplomats to discuss the Syrian issue. This would explain the delay between when Kerry announced the plans to invade Syria and their next press conference nearly a week later. Evidently these meetings did not go well and despite their best efforts the US could not get Iran to agree to even a small military strike to at least save the face if the US president after all his chest beating. [Google it]. Personally I find this particular story hard to take in given the tough talk from Washington re Iran over the last few years AND the crippling sanctions they’ve foisted upon this nation and its people. But being more in the know than many about Iran I am aware of many such meetings between the US and Iran trough the years that have never made it to American mainstream media. That’s the key to understanding geopolitical affairs especially regarding. The United States. What’s really going on almost never gets reported on. What does get reported is usually a smokescreen or what is commonly referred to as a false flag operation. One can usually determine what is NOT truly important by simply paying attention to whatever the mainstream media is talking about.
They’re either the last to know OR they’re simply following orders and are deliberately not reporting what’s really happening. I don’t pretend to know which is fact. We just know at this time that they almost never report on or discuss anything remotely important or factual compared to the behind the scenes. Whether a full on conspiracy as some people suggest or just ignorance of the facts I cannot yet conclude.
Last week several global media outlets began reporting that Saudi go-to henchman Prince Bandar (read the book Sleeping With The Devil to learn about him and how important and involved he is in American geopolicital affairs and foreign policy) was actually the person who supplied re chemical weapons to Syria — a gift from the Saudi so called royal family — to the REBELS and it was THEY who actually used them, albeit unknowingly. A buddy of mine from the music scene, the Lone Ranger, one of the greatest singer songwriters of our time, or any for that matter, is a big Obama fan, God love him. His ignorance regarding world affairs belies his utter brilliance as a songsmith. He posted something to social media yesterday that was so innocently pro-Obama, touting his claim that he will wait for the US Congress to make the decision about whether or not to invade Syria or not, that you couldn’t help but smile, the way you do when you see your child take their first step or splash food all over the kitchen. I mean it was just cute at best. But then others began posting comments and links to his post that were more founded in reality. Much to his chagrin and dismay but hopefully elucidating for him at some point as well.
I posted the same articles yesterday and the day before about the leaks coming out that it was the rebels who actually used the chemical weapons. I’m glad this story is spreading. It appears as sad as it is for all of us that this was yet another Saudi/American false flag operation to further their agenda started with 9/11. Bandar supplied the necessary “problem” the Saudi/American cartel wanted to trigger the “reaction – solution” portion of the equation. I.e. “Assad used chemical weapons and we now need to take military action against Syria.” Surprise surprise.
Of course no one was counting on this inconvenient truth being discovered. Even though Assad himself told TIME magazine last week “it would defy elementary logic for us to use chemical weapons in an area where we have a heavy concentration of our own troops.” The white House believes the American people will fall for this story even thus. So it turns out the rebels actually used them but didn’t know what they were. Now we are forced to acknowledge that the US president and company know this fact and they r just following orders just as Bush and company did. Especially since General Wesley Clark revealed to us that Syria was on that initial invade and coup list along with Iraq Libya Iran and others. what about Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan? All countries where Obama’s United States is currently waging war.
What seemed like whacky conspiracy speak ten years ago is now happening right before our eyes just as the General said it would. As quaint and precious as The Lone Ranger and others are in their desire to see things thru patriotic high school textbook viewpoints, there is simply no way we can return to those naive eyes any longer. This was all planned. Unfortunately the reasons we now know and there doesn’t seem there is anything we can do about it but prepare for at least two more wars; Syria and Iran. Iran of course is already being terrorized by America through a brutal economic terrorism. The US will use Israel and the nuclear excuse to finish them off. What then? Only those heartless war mongers in Washington know.
When all is said and done history will show that the United States and its allies primarily the Saudi royal family and Israel will have manufactured excuses or reasons to invade 5 to 7 countries over the course of a 15 year period. That’s if they’re successful in this grand scheme of theirs. A desire to rule the world doesn’t necessarily guarantee its success. History has shown us that time and time again.
James Gandolfini and the 8 Foods We Eat in America That Are Banned in Other Countries
The news that Sopranos actor James Gandolfini had died on Wednesday hit most Americans with at least a little surprise. Death does that. It’s so permanent. As sad as the event is to some, if not everyone, (especially those close to the man one assumes), there was an odd sense of something uncannily not surprising about it.
(I only met Gandolfini once. We shared a pleasant three hours together with a few other guys smoking cigars in Midtown Manhattan a few years ago. Though I would not classify us as being close, he was as nice a chap as anyone else you’d want to hang out with.) Wednesday’s news could have been about anyone. In fact it was. James Gandolfini was after all just another one of the many thousands of people who die everyday. And lest we forget, approximately every four seconds someone on planet earth dies from hunger or thirst alone; in addition to all the people who pass on from accidents or natural causes.
The only reason this event received more attention than the ten to fifteen souls who died in the last sixty seconds while I was writing this will is because of America’s insanely hard to rationalize obsession with Hollywood celebrities. There’s no logic in it. No anthropological undercurrent of genetic or survival instincts at play. It’s just a very strange disorder of priorities, most likely created by the evolution of American society into a thrill, luxury and pleasure seeking society as opposed to a day to day survival based one.
As I expressed through various social media a few moments after we heard the news, the biggest take away from Gandolfini’s death — besides the obvious empathy for his family, is just how young he was. Because life expectancy continues to increase as knowledge of health and wellness information expands and technology advances, 51 years today is what 31 used to be. Most men aren’t even peaking in life yet in many Western and even Asian cultures. It’s a terribly young age to die, as in the forever kind of death. In this regard its shocking and more than sad. Though for those who knew Gandolfini even from a distance it wasn’t the craziest thing ever heard. He certainly didn’t look 51. Personally I thought he was closer to 65. Not that that would be any less disturbing. 65 may have been a ripe old age to die once upon a time but these days it seems just plain tragic. The man did appear to be much older than he was and he certainly didn’t appear to be healthy or even health conscious or concerned.
This got me to thinking about what a strange place the United States is in regards to our beloved capitalism and our health. On the one hand we pride ourselves on possessing one of the most liberal free markets in the world today, i.e. very few rules laws and regulations and thus an easy environment to make a ton of money in fast. On the other hand this has led us to simultaneously have one of the most inhumane and criminal set of circumstances and practices related to the public health. America is one of the only “civilized” or “first world” countries in the world where people can still be notoriously dishonest with each other to the point of killing each other in the name of making money. Whether it’s poison food or deadly drugs and so-called medicines or environmental toxins in our air and water, it ain’t hard to get away with committing alarmingly egregious acts in the name of business and free enterprise.
I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating. There is no way the average person in America could grow up here and raise a family and know how to live a healthy lifestyle unless they actually do a ton of research on their own and are willing to almost entirely buck the system and go against the status quo. If you just live your life doing what everyone else does or what you see illustrated in the mainstream or recommended by the medical establishment you’re bound to get sick and die of unnatural causes. This is primarily due to the legal bribery and blackmail system that governs and controls the United States White House and Congress; they call it “lobbying”. 99% of Americans don’t even realize this is how the government works (or doesn’t work better put), so they don’t understand that there is a problem to fix. They assume everything is okay, safe, secure, been set up already, and all they have to do is follow the rules and they’ll be fine. Little do we all know.
Only in America can you manufacture and sell poison food and get away with it while being fully aware that 1 out of 3 people will get cancer but be fine with it because “everybody does it.” Below is an interesting article on 8 poisonous foods that Americans consume daily but are banned in other countries. You can see the list by clicking here.
And this list though shocking is actually pretty slim compared to the reality. It just touches the surface. Americans are so accustomed with the notion that most people get cancer and heart disease and Alzheimer’s that they take it for granted. They seem to believe that these diseases are “natural causes”. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
There’s more. Much more. Because the practice extends way beyond our food. It’s the environment. The air. The water. Over the counter medicines and toiletries. Prescription medications. Doctors and the health care system. Everywhere you look you see blatant causes of America’s leading causes of illness, premature aging and untimely death. And though there is common knowledge about these facts within the industries that produce these goods and provide these practices and within the government, the knowledge is not shared with the people because it would limit the amount of money that tens of thousands of American companies could generate unless they changed their business procedures and practices or their entire business model.
This would hurt the economy we are told. We have always been told this since the invention of invention and commerce. It’s the oldest excuse in the world. And yet it is firmly held belief by many. A rallying cry of big and little business across the board. Fluoride is a great example. Cows milk is another. On and on. So for now, as things stand, each and every person in the States needs to look out for their own health and wellness and yet of their family. No federal agency or sitting president or mainstream media outlet or medical doctor is going to advise us to not grill meat because it causes cancer or not drink diet soda because it has been proven to make one MORE obese and cause brain tumors. This is all information one has to find out for themselves. It’s unfortunate for the James Gandolfinis of the world. Whether they’re famous actors or just good old fashioned regular folk.
I go out to lunch with JerseyGirl today.
I go out to lunch with JerseyGirl today. we have known each for over ten years now, having met at our first Avatar masters course back then and continue to see each other at courses and various social events. She lives close by so we hang now and then. I tell her how we filmed all day on Saturday and we viewed the footage on Sunday and the audio was all effed up so now we have to re-film on Tuesday. How my show-finale speech was all about how we, the people, are losing the good fight and how the giant corporations that rule the earth are winning, how they have always won, how they will always win, and hey at least we have good music and film, and that’s all about all we have. the best that we can hope for is that it doesn’t get any worse, but even that seems like a pipe dream. The people with money, and I mean BIG money, are going to continue to sell out the rest of the people regardless of what that means in the long haul. I mean, after all, George bush and his big goal now of reforming social security, does that have anything to do with doing something right for the people? for his neighbors? I mean why is he so adamant about this? why isn’t he tackling more important issues like health care or the environment or credit card or banking reformation to really help the American people? instead he is spending much of his time now trying to convince the public that the government should overhaul social security to the tune of billions of dollars.. and who is going to get these billions of dollars? You guessed it, large corporations. The same corporations that put him in the seat of president. So now that he is president he needs to give them this on a silver platter, just as he gave them the country of Iraq. This has nothing to do with helping the American people, and most people know it, the media knows it, congress knows it, everyone knows it, but we pretend that we don’t because that’s the way it works. the emperor has no clothes and everyone acts like they don’t notice because that is way it has always worked. That’s our job as a people. So no, chances are we will not see reform of political campaign financing, or health care, or banking or unemployment fixes, or education, or protection of the environment, because even though that’s what we need as a people, there is no money in that for the big powers that be that run the world and got him into power. that’s just the way it is for America now.
On the subject of the environment. Well it looks like we lost that fight and we will contnue to lose that fight. the environment is a lost cause as long as gw sits in power. no matter how many people try to change it. we can raise ten billion dollars to save the environment and with one phone call to or from one president of one company to the president of the United States, all of that can be reversed and destroyed in an hour. that’s life.
Maybe there’s hope, who knows. but for now, at this point, after six months of interviews and really studying, this is where I’m at with it. it appears to me that we are losing, that the people of the world are losing, and that there’s nothing we can really do about it.
So I share this with JerseyGirl over lunch and tell her that this is the conclusion that I share with people in the TV show that I have been filming. and she is aghast. She is horrified. ‘but you are an Avatar. How could you do this? how could you even think these thoughts? You know that whatever you put your attention on you help manifest… you know this. I am shocked Fishy.’ ‘I know JerseyGirl. I knew you would feel like this. But I’m afraid this is really how I feel right now. this is how I see it. the whole idea of this show is for me to be honest with what I’m feeling. The truth is that the poor and middle classes and even the moderately rich will always lose, and the super rich will always rule, even when they think they are winning and really losing, they will still get their way because that’s just the way the world works. the only way change is created is by violent acts of revolution.’ ‘Fishy you do not mean this. tell me you are kidding right now. this is ridiculous.’ ‘I know how you feel. I’m with you Jers, I’m with you, you know my heart, we became masters together, so you know that I’m a lover not a fighter, but I gotta tell you, I have to call as I see it, and this is what I’m seeing.’ ‘well don’t you see that the audio being messed up and now you guys having to re-shoot is a sign from the universe that you need to change your conclusion a little… do you see that?’ she smiles at me this really big joyful appreciative smile that she is famous for.’ ‘yeah I see that. I will change it a bit. I am going to try to find a way to make it a little more positive… but I’ll tell you, I’m not even giving you the whole picture. I’ve been studying this stuff a lot and I’m really starting to believe that the only way we’re ever going to change things for the better for us is through violent acts of rebellion and revolution. I didn’t say that on tape but that’s what I’m feeling now.’ ‘Fishy I can’t even believe you are saying this. don’t you dare. As an Avatar, don’t you dare. Do you believe that we are creating an EPC? An enlightened planetary civilization?’ ‘I believe that we are trying. But I don’t think we are getting anywhere.’
We finish lunch and as we walk to the car we pass by this store called love saves the day. she forces me to go in and tells me that this is a sign from the universe. She buys me a little beanie baby angel teddy bear and I buy her a little love teddy bear. I tell her I will use the tools to discreate these ideas that I have. that I will begin to work on this to stop thinking this way. so I’m writing about it. trying to sort it out. how I got to this place, I don’t know. its not like me. but I am tired of being a blind idealist with no sense of what’s really going on. I am tired of watching all of my environmental and social and political activist friends work so hard and get no where. The truth is we all marched in protest against this war in Iraq all over the world and we got nowhere. That’s the truth. over a hundred thousand Iraqis murdered and we fought the good fight but the giant corporations of the world won. The Iraqis are dead and that’s that. how idealistic can you be after witnessing that?
Current spin: Moby, his new one, Hotel. I love Moby. How can you not.