Thankful For Truth

Source: RepublicofLakota.com, "Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre"

Noam Chomsky calls the U.S. a "heavily indoctrinated" society. So little truth leaks through the corporate infotainment stream that a person could go an entire lifetime without hearing more than a squeak of it. The freedom to just walk away from MSNBC and Hollywood blockbusters and MTV, from Time and "News"week, the New Yorker and the Washington Post, is seldom exercised. 

The internet has brought me so many possible truths that I was not a bit surprised to find out that it was being used to build massive dossiers on each and every one of us using it. As a truth stream, it was far too good to be true. I expect it to end any day now.

But for today, the national holiday built on genocide against the Pequot people, I am thankful for the connection that brings me in contact with others around the planet who seek true information.

Just a smattering from my morning reading:

From the Mainichi Shimbun, "Former PM's envoy was determined to disclose secret Japan-U.S. pacts

A former editor who was involved in publishing a book revealing Japan-U.S. diplomatic secrets over the reversion of Okinawa has criticized the government-sponsored state secrets protection bill (emphasis mine), which cleared the House of Representatives on Nov. 26 and is now under debate in the House of Councillors 

...[Mafumi] Azuma spent the whole night reading the manuscripts, which were compelling and accompanied by letters and memorandums detailing exchanges with then National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and other negotiating partners. Azuma told Wakaizumi the next day that he was going to publish the book.

What a perfect piece of legislation to accompany rescinding Article 9, which constitutionally forbids Japan to have a military force capable of aggression.

From Vice media, "A Generation of US and UK War Veterans Are Being Silenced"

I was gagged by a military court in 2009. I had spilled no secrets. Rather I’d claimed Afghanistan occupation was an illegitimate, shambolic disaster. The keenest soldiers I know say the same, but I said it on television rather than in the regimental bar. I spent five months in a military jail over a banality. Others have faced similar or worse treatment.

The writer is veteran Joe Glenton.

From the same source, a shout out to Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, one of the biggest truth tellers of our time

Heather Linebaugh...served in the US Air Force in drone intelligence between 2009 and 2012 and was "honourably" discharged....she fled to Canada, a place she felt safe to speak out from. She was good at her job, earning the nickname “Harbinger of Death” from her comrades. Not every assignment went smoothly, though: “One mission in particular, I remember that we were told to keep quiet about, and to this day, I can still not discuss it.” 

Heather says she challenged an officer of more senior rank on the issue. She asked what would happen if people spoke out about “sloppy strikes”. She was taken to her commander and warned about “talking recklessly” and asking “stupid questions”. 

In her unit there was a watchword used to keep people quite: Manning. “If we spoke out about certain missions to the general public, and definitely media, we would 'end up like Bradley Manning'." The effort to instil fear was being ramped up around the time she was leaving the military. "I saw quite a few posters going up with an image of the typical soldier sitting in a jail cell in handcuffs."

Then there's the recent blockbuster report on corporations (our real government, which does not in any way resemble democracy) infiltrating organizations that work for positive social change in order to spy on the participants. 

From Common Dreams, "Corporate Espionage and the Secret War Against Citizen Activism"

According to the study by the Center for Corporate Policy—a project of the Ralph Nader-affiliated Essential Action, today's 'Pinkerton Thugs' are staffed by former law enforcement, CIA, NSA, FBI and military employees, funded by some of the biggest-name corporations in the world, and backed by highly-secretive investigative firms that operate as spy agencies for the private sector. 

Titled Spooky Business, the 53-page study pieces together nearly 20 years of information exposing this hidden wing of the private sector, which its author Gary Ruskin says "is just the tip of the iceberg." While targets run the gamut, from anti-war to workers' rights groups to environmental organizations, they appear to have one thing in common: they are perceived as a threat to the corporate bottom-line.

One last item, this one in the category of super secret treaties your government is negotiating to crash life on this planet via giving corporations control over food and information, among other things. Never heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership? That's no accident. 

From Common Dreams "Monsanto, the TPP, and Global Food Dominance":

“Control oil and you control nations,” said US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. "Control food and you control the people.”

I could go on like this all day, but I have some potatoes to mash.

So that's why I am thankful today for the internet and Wikileaks, for Edward Snowden, for my fellow citizen journalists, and for Chelsea Manning -- celebrating yet another birthday in jail for telling us the truth about U.S. war crimes.