Occupying The Narrative Keeps Peace Candidates On Mute, Ensures War Spending Will Roll On

Jill Stein at a fundraiser in Portland, Maine October 30, 2015.
You will not see photos of Stein with a cute baby in corporate media, so I am sharing one here. 

The American Herald Tribune published David Swanson's interview with Green Party leader and presidential candidate Jill Stein this week. In it Swanson makes the audacious claim that, since Stein's platform most closely reflects the priorities of people rather than those of corporations, she has a better chance of winning than do candidates who kiss the ring of Pentagon contractors. Because a majority of people would actually vote for the platform Stein campaigns on.

But my inbox is clogged with letters and op-eds from people who should know better who are "feeling the Bern." Liberals are again hopelessly hoping for change from the Democratic Party. Why in the face of so much evidence to the contrary do they continue to be duped?

I think it's because they still get most of their information from corporate "news" -- a zone which blacks out any reference to non-corporate sponsored candidates.

In life under corporate government, it's all about hogging the narrative. Making sure people never hear from candidates who respond intelligently to what people really want.

Because people want the military budget to stop gobbling up over half the federal budget every year. They want to stop supporting 800+ military bases around the planet. The want the wars for oil and the resulting refugee crisis and the proliferation of nuclear weapons to cease.

"Refugee crisis: Pregnant woman and children among 40 victims after boat sinks off Turkish coast"
Mirror.co.uk  Jan. 30, 2016

People don't want the future inhabitants of the White House to have a blank check for waging war on "terror" with no geographic or temporal boundaries.

People want student debt canceled, and free university education like other rich countries have. Stein has an interesting strategy here. She told Swanson:

"I have yet to find a young person in debt who doesn't become a missionary for our campaign the minute they learn that we will cancel their debt...43 million young people – that is a plurality of the vote. In a three-way race, that's enough to win the vote."

People want universal health care like other rich countries have. Stein retired from practice as a medical doctor to promote the kind of environmental policies that human health needs dictate.

Also on board: Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Green Party candidate for the Senate in Maryland and a vigorous activist on behalf of a single payer health care system. (Actually, click here to read the article.)

People want the government to respond to climate crisis rather than continuing to pump out carbon and other pollutants at the taxpayers' expense.

People want to have a say in whether or not to live under corporate global government instead of having it shoved down their throats by fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal through Congress.

From Black Agenda Report "Ethnic Cleansing: The Ultimate Environmental Racism" by Glen Ford

People want clean food and water, and real information in order to know if they are poisoning their own children unwittingly.

People want police accountability and an end to extrajudicial killing by guns at home and air strikes abroad.

People want the government to help poor families fleeing the murderous policies engendered in Central America by CAFTA and torturers trained at the taxpayer-supported School of the Americas. People don't want migrant children handed over to human traffickers after being housed in concentration camp-like conditions for weeks or months on end.

But even more than all these things, people want to believe in something. Anything that might pull us back from the precipice. Don't think corporate media doesn't recognize this. It's very important to manage this profound need of mobs in times of crisis.

That's why the demagogue with the bad hair appeals to so many frightened working class voters. They see enormous structural problems with our system as it stands, but they also have a compelling need to blame it on someone else. It couldn't be their fault, because they feel like victims themselves. They've lost faith in corporate government and most corporate media. Only "news" outlets that broadcast scapegoats appeal to them now.

Their news feed will make sure they never hear of Dr. Jill Stein or Dr. Margaret Flowers. How about yours?

#KunduzAttack Protests Sweep The Nation, Doctor Arrested In Congressional Hearing

Humanitarian activists staged a 'die-in' in front of Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, calling for an independent investigation into the bombing of a MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Mercy Hospital To Be Location For Oct. 10 Protest 

Of U.S. Bombing of Hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan

Portland, Maine –– Citizens disgusted by the U.S. bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan will protest on Saturday, October 10 in front of Mercy Hospital at 5:00pm. 

CODEPINK Local Coordinator Lisa Savage said, “Bombing hospitals is a war crime under the Geneva convictions, and the Pentagon spokesman who called this ‘collateral damage’ is likely well aware of this fact.”

Some protesters plan to wear scrubs to highlight the fact that staff of the hospital were killed and injured during more than 30 minutes of bombing. Patients, including children, were also burned to death or otherwise injured during the air strike on the only free trauma hospital in the region. Doctors Without Borders has since announced that it is withdrawing from Kunduz, possibly from all of Afghanistan.

The action in Portland is part of a national wave of protests.

In Washington DC on Oct 6 before the start of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing about Afghanistan, Dr. Margaret Flowers was arrested for speaking out against the recent US bombing of a Doctors Without Border hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Dr. Flowers was holding a sign which read “BOMBING HOSPITALS= WAR CRIME”.

Dr. Flowers, a pediatrician and candidate for the U.S. Senate seeking Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s seat, was with members of the peace group CODEPINK at the hearing who were wearing “bloodied” doctors garb with “bloody” hands to draw attention to the culpability of hearing witness General John Campbell, who is responsible for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. 

“There needs to be an independent investigation into the hospital bombing in Kunduz because targeting hospitals is against international law,” Dr. Flowers said from the Capitol Hill jail. “People should be held accountable for violating the law.”

The protesters were also calling for a U.S. commitment to rebuild the hospital, provide health care for the injured parties and compensate the families of the deceased. They delivered a petition to General Campbell signed by over 5,000 members of CODEPINK. 

Several members of Doctors Without Borders attended the hearing. "Only an independent investigation will give us answers as to why a hospital was bombed and why the bombing continued for more than 30 minutes after Coalition and Afghan forces were informed that they were bombing a humanitarian hospital. The 22 civilians killed in this attack, including 12 staff of Doctors Without Borders deserve a transparent investigation," said Ella Watson-Stryker, who was named Time Magazine person of the year for fighting Ebola with Doctors Without Borders.

For more information on the Oct. 10 protest at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine contact CODEPINK Local Coordinator Pat Taub, 207-542-7119, pparee2011@gmail.com.