Insane McCain

John McCain, the 76-year old US senator from Arizona, should retire. Hard living has taken a horrible toll on body & mind. He's served well, and is a great example of a warrior who should honorably retire. Sure he's reluctant, and hesitates to admit weakness & decline, but he must be encouraged to depart.

Public life is rough & bitter. Hang it up Senator.

So sad for his legacy... if faltering & doddering lead to him being labeled "insane McCain"...

Impunity?

Too much state-sponsored violence & abuse hides under the rubric of patriotism. A key problem is greed - especially among big industrial interests. Let's encourage them to police themselves, as their interests are often in competition. Otherwise we are fed bullshit by corporate media.

There are no good reasons the USA should occupy Iraq or Afghanistan. Let's bring our warriors back to the homeland, and spend domestically. Almost everyone will be better-off.

Tyranny and legal impunity are like diseases, quickly infecting others. The wider community must condemn such shenanigans.

Torture Glorified

Mark Boal (writer) and movie director Kathryn Bigelow have glorified torture in their 2012 film 'Zero Dark Thirty' -- reportedly making it seem tortures generated the information that lead U.S. forces to finding Osama Bin Laden.

Not many of us will be tortured. Thankfully. But after this whitewash in the US of A, more people are likely to be thus sacrificed. Maybe Boal & Bigelow should be entered onto Russia's blacklist of human rights violators, along with other buddies from the Waterboard Club. Inciting torture is similar to inciting hate crime.

(Scum such as John Yoo, David Addington & Nino Scalia are certain fingernail removal works wonders, yet barely hurts).

Krawcheck Devils

Sallie Krawcheck
 -- Opportunistic bankster bitch, spawn of Citigroup & Bank of America. For five cents profit she'd sell yo mortgaged ass to the devil. Dog-eat-dog till the big hounds eat you. Sallie's a crony capitalist in makeup, a creation of spin & too-slick PR.

Magnitsky - Manning Laws

Russian poster boy Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (Сергей Леонидович Магнитский) was a Moscow lawyer & corporate auditor whose activism against Russian government corruption led to he himself being arrested & held without charge in Moscow's infamous prison Butyrka (Бутырская тюрьма). In 2009 Magnitsky died in police detention.

Magnitsky's death was variously blamed on negligence, torture, or poor medical care. His whistleblower claims of massive tax fraud and accusations against specific powerful officials clearly put him under great threat, and his close links to foreign business interests raised further suspicions.

Magnitsky's abuse & tragic death has become a cause célèbre around the world, a symbol of bad government that is corrupt, unaccountable and ruthless. The Magnitsky case also highlights collusion between the press, government officials and powerful private interests, who repackage stories as weapons for purging and realigning leadership factions. This is likely to become more pronounced with the passage in the USA of revised US-Russia trade legislation that demands Russian officials linked to human rights violations face travel restrictions & asset seizures. 

As the USA unilaterally puts together a "Magnitsky List" against Russians previously protected from accountability, the Russians are threatening to highlight dirty American officials who've similarly operated above the law. Might such checks & balances become a step forward for human rights?

Human rights violations are far too frequent in our world, with many governments turning a blind eye to torture, unilateral warfare, illegal military occupation, and extrajudicial punishments. Magnitsky is one of tens of thousands murdered by assorted nations via bureaucratic difference.

Sadly, media relations budgeting determines who is freedom fighter or terrorist. Naming human rights offenders is a highly political process sure to fuel further collusion between media & governments.

The Russians might highlight the cases of Daniel Ellsberg or Bradley Manning or Muhammed Ali or Julian Assange or a host of others who've suffered retaliation or abuse for their efforts. Surely the USA has hundreds of weasels who've actively crushed human rights both home & abroad. String 'em up!

Who are the public employees responsible for extrajudicial killing and holding hostage huge swathes of our world? Ultimately our enslavement relies on faceless officials and belief in their immunity.

    

Onward & Upward

An anonymous comment to another blog very much worth reposting:

"Good executive talent is relentless about improvement, bad executive talent is relentless about maintaining and managing their own personal ‘image’ in the eyes of their superiors. The result is that good executive talent will regularly change course to correct errors once they realize that methodologically superior avenues are available, while bad executive talent is always making excuses for their errors and staying course."

"Matter of fact, I’d go so far to say that is one thing is a total dealbreaker if I recognize it in any of my people. Show me a man who stands around and makes excuses for inoptimal decisions worried more about how it reflects on him personally rather than his responsibility as a manager, I’ll show you a man who’s packing his desk within the hour. It’s something I’ve learned to recognize very quickly and I have fired people for just that within the past 12 months."

Thanks Anon & Elliot Silver.

Hating Colin Powell

US Secretary of State Colin Powell went to the United Nations Security Council in 2003 and promised "every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."

He lied. The cost of his lies about Iraq was tens of thousands of lives lost, and a huge outlay of funds to militarists that continues to destabilize American society. Costofwar.com estimates spending for the Iraq war at over $800 billion, or nearly $3000 per person in the USA. Of course, if you also lost loved ones, you might somehow celebrate their sacrifice.

Anyhow, Powell supposedly now feels his UNSC presentation was a "painful" incident. I can't agree - compared to tens of thousands (maybe millions) of others, Colin Powell knows little about pain.

Earlier in his career, Colin Powell earned respect & honor before he abandoned his integrity. Honor is not something turned on & off. He schemed to deceive us, harnessing his honor to forces dark & horrible. It's especially painful as we were led to expect better from Powell. We were played like dumb chumps.

Powell, Bush, Cheney & Blair should be in prison. The others were already corrupt, but Powell especially might have changed the world positively. He did the opposite.

Last week, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice had the opportunity to cast a vote for Middle East peace that would have echoed for years. Sure it would have disobeyed her government and it's masters, and likely she'd have lost her job. But she'd have done the right thing, and become a hero to millions.

When Tommie Smith & John Carlos stood on the podium at the 1968 Olympic Games and silently demonstrated for Black Power, their effort was ridiculed & condemned. Years later they are seen as heroic & courageous. We can't expect so many others to stand proudly and refuse to compromise to hatred and prejudice, but the torch of human rights is not extinguished. Some people will step forward in the face of crushing power to work for a better world.

2 Wrongs ! !

Millions of innocent Jewish people were tortured & murdered by the Nazis. All Germans and associated peoples share some responsibility for that Holocaust.

Some Jewish survivors and others migrated to the Middle East and re-created the nation of Israel. The people displaced there were different from those responsible for the Jewish Holocaust. Land was taken from the native peoples, and still Israel continues to advance and occupy the land of others. Many Israelis now believe their ultra-right factions and squatter settlements undermine the nation's foundations, though some claim persecution & security needs as justification. Other Zionists claim divine guidance.

Surely to torture and steal from the innocent is unsustainable and wrong.

Sophistry & Deception

The UN General Assembly's upgrade of Palestine to observer state status was immediately condemned by the USA. Echoing earlier argument by Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor, the American UN Ambassador Susan Rice highlighted the need for direct negotiations by the parties involved.

Surely this is correct.

However, looking at the status of Israel and that of Palestine, bilateral dialog was avoided in part due to imbalanced status. Israel is a full member state of the United Nations, while Palestine was an observer entity. Palestine has been easily marginalized. Indeed (link), even Israel's former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert came out in favor of Palestine's bid as grounds to move talks forward. This result, to upgrade Palestine, is a better option than to downgrade or suspend Israel from UN membership.

Do these parties truly want peace? On both sides, 65 years of hostilities have damaged many moderate peace-loving families. Let's hope this is positive change. Hope in support of peace.

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138 nations voted Yes
(Among the 27 EU nations were 14 Yes votes, 1 No vote, 12 abstentions. Overall, supporters outnumbered opponents by a 15 to 1 margin)

9 nations voted No
Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Panama, USA

41 nations abstained
Albania, Andorra, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Estonia, Fiji, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Tonga, UK, Vanuatu