Outpouring Of Grief And Rage Across A Nation Caging Children #LightsForLiberty

Waterville, Maine  July 12, 2019

My husband and I attended two events yesterday in Maine protesting the child concentration camps and family separations employed by the federal government to terrorize asylum seekers and other immigrants.

Waterville, Maine July 12, 2019

50 people turned out in Skowhegan to stand for two hours on the bridge, ending with a candlelight vigil.

Skowhegan, Maine  July 12, 2019

It was part of the nationwide Lights for Liberty campaign to bring the demand to the streets and, where possible, to the concentration camps themselves.

50 is a lot of people at a protest in central Maine, but there was no press at the well-publicized event.

Many of my own children's retired teachers were there, as well as current teachers and several children. Organizer and educator Aliza Jones was there with her daughter who was eating ice cream -- what children should be doing on a summer night, rather than crying for their parents while laying on concrete in a cage near the border.

Skowhegan, Maine July 12, 2019

Lots of signs called on the federal government to do better. Some expressed a belief that the USA is better than this.

Waterville, Maine  July 12, 2019

I wish I could agree that our country is better than this. Built on the genocide of Native people and the labor of slaves, we do not have an admirable history. My white people always seem to be forgetting that many of us could be holding Bobby Hayes' sign above: Grandchild of Immigrants. 

But many people do not know the true history of this nation: the U.S. government turned away boatloads of Jewish refugees who died in concentration camps, knew about the Holocaust but allowed it to proceed anyway, and, after tardily "liberating" the camps, ran show trials at Nuremberg while quietly bringing Nazi rocket scientists to the USA.

Skowhegan, Maine   July 12, 2019

But we, the people of the U.S., can do MUCH better than caging toddlers and torturing them by withholding food, showers, and hugs.

Bourassa family together in Skowhegan  July 12, 2019

As the Japanese-Americans interned during WWII hysteria have said, At least we were with our parents. 

Even for adults, even if they are alleged to have broken a law (note that seeking asylum is not a crime), indefinite detention goes against the rule of law the U.S. claims to have been founded on.

It could be you or a toddler you love next.

Skowhegan, Maine  July 12, 2019

Get busy now demanding that your elected officials shut down the camps and reunite the families: 202-225-3121.

Which Side Would Lady Liberty Be On In The #SecondCivilWar ?

Therese Patricia Okoumou made history on July 4th by climbing to the feet of the statue of liberty in New York harbor, refusing to come down until all the caged children seized at the U.S. border were released. 

Instead of complying with her humane demand, law enforcement used force to remove Okoumou, jailed her, and then attempted to trivialize her protest by charging the 44 year old immigrant with performing a "dangerous stunt."

I don't know about you, but to me this looks like a woman staging a direct action, not a stunt.

Okoumou put her safety on the line. Reportedly, she was not backed up by the Rise and Resist group she had been demonstrating with. I'm curious about that and looking for confirmation/more information. If I had to guess, I'd say they probably retreated to cafes and continued tweeting out #SecondCivilWarletters which have been cracking me up and sometimes inspiring me as I read the news from home.

My darling wife--Today we celebrate our #IndependenceDay fighting for children at our borders, for the freedom elusive to so many. We just got word of a black woman in another regiment scaling the #StatueOfLiberty. We cheer her!
xo#secondcivilwarletters pic.twitter.com/eSVSJucCcg

— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) July 5, 2018

My brothers and sisters:

I regretfully report that I will not be able to make it to the battlefield for the #SecondCivilWar. I was drafting battle plans in a Starbucks when I was arrested for not buying anything. You must stay strong in my absence. #secondcivilwarletters

— Louis Morgan (@MasterMorgan317) July 4, 2018

Beloved,

We have reached Fort Indianapolis, where the Holy Family has been captured. What manner of evil is this? Pray for strength to resist such horrors. #SecondCivilWarLetters pic.twitter.com/15p7jlHkSB

— Elaina Ramsey (@elainabueno) July 4, 2018

A "well regulated" militia the Redhats are not. One need merely shout at them "Jesus was a refugee!", promoting a state of panic and hysteria inducing them to fire aimlessly in all directions. We are running low on almond milk. Pray for our safe return. #Secondcivilwarletters

— Mike Kelly (@mikepup) July 4, 2018

My love,
We are bunkered down in the public library, practically alone...no sign of MAGA troops anywhere yet. We will defend our position by throwing biographies of women like Ruth Baden Ginsburg and Ann Richards at the enemy. The end of war is in sight! #secondcivilwarletters

— A Touch Of Glitz (@atouchofglitz) July 4, 2018

My Dearest,

At first we were scared of the enemy artillery, but when we realized their trajectory math was based on the earth being flat, we relaxed. Their shelling has fallen woefully short for days and yet they refuse to recalculate.

With Love,
Derek#secondcivilwarletters

— Doctor Doom (@VicDoomMD) July 4, 2018

Dearest,

I thought I was at the battleground, but when I arrived, I saw moms marching to keep us safe from gun violence? Can someone tell me where the civil war is?

Sincerely,
Laura #secondcivilwarletters #FourthofJuly2018 @MomsDemand @shannonrwatts pic.twitter.com/ZgPY60BAaN

— Laura Kirk (@LaurakKirk) July 4, 2018

REVISED July 24 to include the funniest tweet yet on this subject:

#secondcivilwarletters
We have snuck behind enemy lines and removed the gender-specific signage from their latrines. Now we wait for their bladders to explode.

— Xeya Waxe (@TruthArrmy) July 4, 2018

Under Regimes Of White Supremacy And Kleptocracy, Suicide Rates Are Skyrocketing -- Even Among Elites

Lorie Meacham

Follow · June 6 · 

I don't care how you try to spin it. Children are not criminals. They don't belong in cages. Period.

When Europeans landed in North America with their heads full of white supremacy and colonialism, it was the beginning of a long demise. For them and for everyone unfortunate enough to be in their path to conquest.

NEW- CLARIFICATION OF WHAT TRUMP WANTS INSURANCE COMPANIES TO BE ABLE TO DENY OR UP-CHARGE FOR:

-Asthma inhaler
-Mild anxiety
-Alcoholism
-Toe fungus
-Being 50
-High blood pressure
-Birth control

Individual coverage for cancer, diabetes, a transplant, epilepsy wouldn’t exist https://t.co/CRFEYwEP45

— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) June 8, 2018

The places where white supremacy and unregulated capitalism have brought us are dismal. 

Dismal for everyone. This is the part elites don't get: a society ruled by racist kleptocrats is not worth living in. The suicide rate in the U.S. has risen dramatically in the last two decades, and elites are far from immune from this particular disease of despair.

From the Center for Disease Control:

If you need help for yourself or someone else, please contact the

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

Talk: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Chat: www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Emulating my shero Cecile Pineda, here's a rose among thorns from Maureen Ostensen of Maine's Smilin' Trees Disarmament Farm. May it give you hope for the future!

Frances [high school daughter] participated in a forum for Democratic candidates for governor.  Each student wrote questions for one candidate, and Frances wrote the questions for Mark Dion.  She asked him how he voted on the tax break for BIW and why.  He responded that he is one of five Democrats who voted against the tax break calling it corporate ransom.  He said there is no need to take money from the tax payers in Maine to give a tax break to a corporation whose CEO earned in excess of (I think he said $20 million).

With this statement he received almost a standing ovation from a large crowd of pretty affluent Democrats. 

I wanted to share this with you, as I was impressed at how well the crowd understood the issue.  I do not think there would have been that kind of recognition had you [Bruce Gagnon] not made such a valiant effort to publicize the issue.

I have to believe there are pockets of support for a more human approach to weapons and war out there who are beginning to make connections to BIW.

My note: BIW refers to Bath Iron Works which is a subsidiary of super wealthy weapons manufacturer General Dynamics.

We Are Now In A Long Era Of Taxation Without Representation

The ongSyrian refugee crisis is epic, and the U.S. had a large hand in creating it.

I just read this excellent report back from a delegation that met with Maine's alleged representative to the U.S. Senate, Angus King.

Meeting with Sen. Angus King on US Syria Policy

A group of Maine peace activists met with Sen. Angus King (I-ME) on March 11 at the public library in Brunswick.  The 45 minute meeting to discuss Syria was attended by Rosalie Tyler Paul (Brunswick), Mary Donnelly (Brunswick), Joanne Hardy (Brunswick), Dud Hendrick (Deer Island) and Bruce Gagnon (Bath).

Sen. King sits on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees in Washington and was a former governor in Maine.  King told us that he spends 60% of his time on these issues.  He is an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate.

Rosalie began the meeting saying, "I want to speak to the opportunity that awaits our country to move beyond this very adolescent period. We have all the power to lead, we have the money and the muscle but not yet the moral leadership. If there is ever to be a coming of age for our species, we must stop killing each other and begin to cooperate."

We handed Sen. King two recent important articles on Syria and urged him to take the time to read them.  The first one is written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria: They don’t hate ‘our freedoms.’ They hate that we’ve betrayed our ideals in their own countries — for oil. We briefly shared the findings from this excellent piece that ran in Politico with Sen. King - particularly this bit:

Our war against Bashar Assad did not begin with the peaceful civil protests of the Arab Spring in 2011. Instead it began in 2000, when Qatar proposed to construct a $10 billion, 1,500 kilometer pipeline through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Qatar shares with Iran the South Pars/North Dome gas field, the world’s richest natural gas repository. The international trade embargo until recently prohibited Iran from selling gas abroad. Meanwhile, Qatar’s gas can reach European markets only if it is liquefied and shipped by sea, a route that restricts volume and dramatically raises costs. The proposed pipeline would have linked Qatar directly to European energy markets via distribution terminals in Turkey, which would pocket rich transit fees. The Qatar/Turkey pipeline would give the Sunni kingdoms of the Persian Gulf decisive domination of world natural gas markets and strengthen Qatar, America’s closest ally in the Arab world. Qatar hosts two massive American military bases and the U.S. Central Command’s Mideast headquarters.

Of course, the Russians, who sell 70 percent of their gas exports to Europe, viewed the Qatar/Turkey pipeline as an existential threat. In Putin’s view, the Qatar pipeline is a NATO plot to change the status quo, deprive Russia of its only foothold in the Middle East, strangle the Russian economy and end Russian leverage in the European energy market. In 2009, Assad announced that he would refuse to sign the agreement to allow the pipeline to run through Syria “to protect the interests of our Russian ally.”

Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria. It is important to note that this was well before the Arab Spring-engendered uprising against Assad.

The second article we handed Sen. King recently ran in the Boston Globe and was penned by Brown University senior fellow Stephan Kinzer entitled The media are misleading the public on Syria.
Kinzer writes:

Washington-based reporters tell us that one potent force in Syria, al-Nusra, is made up of “rebels” or “moderates,” not that it is the local al-Qaeda franchise. Saudi Arabia is portrayed as aiding freedom fighters when in fact it is a prime sponsor of ISIS. Turkey has for years been running a “rat line” for foreign fighters wanting to join terror groups in Syria, but because the United States wants to stay on Turkey’s good side, we hear little about it. Nor are we often reminded that although we want to support the secular and battle-hardened Kurds, Turkey wants to kill them. Everything Russia and Iran do in Syria is described as negative and destabilizing, simply because it is they who are doing it — and because that is the official line in Washington.

I had the occasion about 18 months ago to have a brief word with Sen. King about Syria and at that time he was holding fast to the line that the US was supporting 'moderate' Syrians in their efforts to overthrow Assad.  This time he never brought up the word - by now alternative media in the US has largely dispelled that notion.  In this meeting I focused in on how ISIS is funded which includes generous contributions of money and weapons from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel and the US.  I mentioned that when Russia first entered Syria to help defend that legitimate government they began bombing ISIS oil truck convoys that were carrying stolen Syrian oil and moving it into Turkey.  Once there President Erdogan's son, who runs an oil distribution company, sold the oil to Japan and Israel and then shared the profits with ISIS.

Sen. King did not dispute any of these points we made about who was funding and arming Syria although he did say that the US too had bombed ISIS oil convoys heading into Turkey with the stolen oil.  "I am not going to defend Turkey but they are a strategic ally," he said.

Mary Donnelly spoke passionately about the refugees in Syria and that greater effort must be made to ensure that supplies of humanitarian aid get through to them.  Due to the recent ceasefire (largely organized by Moscow) some of that aid was now reaching the most hard pressed people inside Syria.

Dud Hendrick shared bits from a letter he handed to Sen. King that called on the US to end its massive and aggressive military empire of more than 900 bases.  Dud graduated from the US Naval Academy and served a tour of duty in Vietnam during that ill-fated war.

Joanne Hardy, an ardent supporter of the Palestinian people, urged Sen. King to push Israel to end its illegal settlement building which continues to displace the people into ever expanding refugee camps.  Sen. King responded, "We've never done anything about Israeli settlements. I'm very sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians.  One of the problems is that it is easy to say one side or the other is right.  But can you sign an agreement with the Palestinians?  Who do you negotiate with?"

Sen. King did acknowledge that Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu does not appear willing to seriously negotiate a real peace agreement.  King was reluctant to acknowledge that the US has tremendous leverage over Israel when one considers the huge amount of aid given to it every year.

(The main expression of Congressional support for Israel has been foreign aid. Since 1985, it has provided nearly $3 billion in grants annually to Israel, with Israel being the largest annual recipient of American aid from 1976 to 2004 and the largest cumulative recipient of aid ($121 billion, not inflation-adjusted) since World War II. Seventy-four percent of these funds must be spent purchasing US goods and services. More recently, in fiscal year 2014, the US provided $3.9 billion in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $8 billion of loan guarantees.)

Sen. King praised the Israeli 'missile defense' program called Iron Dome as something "that likely saved my son's life" when he was in Israel during the most recent exchange of Palestinian rockets and IDF counter-attack on Gaza.  While we didn't have time to discuss the merits of Iron Dome an analysis of the system's failures has been written by Subrata Ghoshroy who is a research affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Program in Science, Technology, and Society.  His article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is called Iron Dome: Behind the hoopla, a familiar story of missile-defense hype.

After Sen. King left the Brunswick library meeting room our delegation remained to evaluate the meeting.  We agreed that unless fellow concerned citizens help by following up on these issues with Sen. King then we will not be able to move things forward.  One in our group remarked that, "Sen. King is still not willing to admit Israel's criminal behavior.  I was put off by his suggestion that the complicated history of the Middle East excuses US behavior in the region."

So we urge those Mainers who care about these complex but important issues in the Middle East to contact Sen. King and share with him your concerns.  You can send him a message at his web site here  https://www.king.senate.gov/contact

Just yesterday Russian President Putin announced a pullout from Syria: "I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” he said.

It will be more than interesting to see what the US and their partners (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Israel) will do next in their effort to topple Assad.  In an article today Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, writes:

Jeffrey Goldberg’s newly published book-length article on Barack Obama and the Middle East includes a major revelation that brings US Secretary of State John Kerry’s Syrian diplomacy into sharper focus: it reports that Kerry has sought on several occasions without success over the past several months to get Obama’s approval for cruise missile strikes against the Syrian government. 

Goldberg reports that “on several occasions” Kerry requested that Obama approve missile strikes at “specific regime targets”, in order to “send a message” to Assad – and his international allies – to “negotiate peace”. Kerry suggested to Obama that the US wouldn’t have to acknowledge the attacks publicly, according to Goldberg, because Assad “would surely know the missiles’ return address”.

Now is indeed the right time for the peace movement around the world to call on the US to match the move by Russia to lower the military footprint on Syria.  If the world wants to bring peace to the region, and reduce the refugee crisis, then we must speak out now loudly and clearly demanding that the attempts to topple the elected Assad government must end.

Bruce K. Gagnon    Posted 3/15/16 to his blog: Organizing Notes
Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

  
After reading Bruce's report I sent King a message. You can, too:

https://www.king.senate.gov/contact

Dear Angus King,
The long U.S. campaign for regime change in Syria may not be apparent to most of your constituents, but the humanitarian crisis of Syrian refugees certainly is. When we use our influence and military power to destabilize a legitimate government seen as a threat to U.S. economic interests -- or the economic interests of U.S. allies like Turkey and Qatar -- it is a disservice to taxpayers. I do not care to defend one nation's right to extract and transport natural gas or any other fossil fuel. The blind allegiance to dinosaur-like energy policies is pushing our planet toward the brink of climate disaster. and no one is the U.S. will be exempt from the negative consequences.

Who determines U.S. policy in southwestern Asia -- Israel? Continuing to arm one of the richest nations in the world as it pushes for war with Iran is dangerous and foolhardy. Continuing to enable Israel's violent occupation of Palestine is likewise dangerous and foolhardy. I have repeatedly heard you mention that your son was in Israel when rockets were being fired by Hezbollah, and Israel was responding by pounding civilian targets in Gaza resulting in the deaths of thousands of children and families. Again, the fact that most of your constituents are fooled into thinking this is a symmetrical conflict can be laid at the feet of corporate "news" media, but some of us are actually paying attention. Why you would use your own family member for propaganda purposes is your business. What you do with the taxes I work hard to pay is very much my business. A teacher and woodworker married couple in Maine pay about 30% of our earnings in federal taxes while many of the corporations who contribute to your campaigns pay nothing.

Your actions and words have shown that you believe you are in the Senate to represent corporate profits, not the people of Maine. That is not what you swore to do when you took the oath of office.

We are now in a long era of taxation without representation. And I think we know where that sort of thing eventually leads.
Lisa Savage
Solon

Islamophobia Is The Predictable Response To More Terror, And Who Benefits From That?

All the predictable things happened after Friday the 13th's acts of terror and violence. France declared a state of emergency, closed its borders, and imposed a curfew. A refugee camp called the Jungle in Calais was set ablaze. 

Vast numbers in the U.S. and Europe "stood with Paris" by changing the color scheme of their avatar or profile picture. Small numbers in the U.S. and Europe wondered why those same folks didn't stand with Beirut, Baghdad or Garissa University in Kenya.

Source: Shafiur Rahman, YouTube video of the Calais "Jungle" refugee camp burning

Politicians in the U.S. jumped on the occasion to denounce Islam -- some demanded apologies from Muslims -- and vilify immigrants, notably refugees who are fleeing from the very violence being denounced. Maine's infamously thuggish governor joined other governors from a Republican Party increasingly defined by overt racism to announce that his state would not accept refugees from Syria. 

No one in my state was surprised that the governor would not know the difference between Algeria and Syria (or be able to find either on an unlabeled map, I suspect). That governors do not have this power wouldn't trouble him in the least. His compatriots in the U.S. Congress were already busy drafting legislation to say the same. 

That would be legal. Immoral and wrong, but legal. So was everything the Nazis did in Germany once they had gained control of the executive and legislative branches of government in that republic.

Besides, the U.S. has a long history of denying entry to persecuted people who aren't the right color or religion.

Jewish refugees on the infamous S.S.St. Louis were denied entry to the U.S. and turned back to Europe in 1939.
Many died in Nazi concentration camps as a result.

Media pundits and others on the right called for more violence to quell the violence. Because the "war on terror" has been such a success in reducing terror. Not. Nor was it because most were aware that Syria was on the list of regimes to topple even before the staged events of 9/11 in the U.S.

Hate crimes against Muslims broke out all over the U.S. Mosques were vandalized. Muslims in France became even more afraid than they have been since the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Source:  [Santi Palacios/AP]

Over 4 million refugees from the war in Syria continued searching for a safe place to bring their children.

And, as reported by Glenn Greenwald in The Intercept, "Stock Prices Of Weapons Manufacturers Soaring Since Paris Attack." 

Who profits from violence that feeds violence? I think we know.

Real News From Afghanistan, For Those With Ears To Hear It

Girls salvage spilled aid flour in Kabul last winter. Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Kathy Kelly came to Portland Maine and gave a talk August 20. She conveyed real news, anecdotal reporting from recent visits to Kabul where she and other members of Voices for Creative Nonviolence work with the Afghan Peace Volunteers.

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Since we heard Kathy speak, my husband and I agree; we can't stop picturing a refugee camp in a cold climate, one with 10,000 people freezing in winter, and starving the year round, many of them ill. 

Source: Andrea Bruce, NYT

Most of these internally displaced people used to be agriculturalists but were driven off their land by by war or, in some cases, by drought because former irrigation systems were ruined by war. So, war. Many are dependent on international aid for their calories.

Fun times in the mess hall at Bagram Air Base. Source: probamablog.com

Across the street we picture the gigantic military base/embassy under construction; when completed, it will be even bigger than the behemoth base we indebted taxpayers built in Baghdad. It is a fortress with gates controlled by heavily armed men who allow only designated people and vehicles to enter. A steady stream of trucks passes through the gates carrying fuel, water, food, and just about everything else people would need to do the work of invading another country. Kathy says when she flies into Kabul her plane is full of private contractors, beefy ex-military men going to work for $120k a year, $80k of it tax exempt.

Source: "US contractors face murder charges" Al-Jazeera

All of this adds up to $2 billion per week. Kathy pays no taxes to the I.R.S. and hasn't for years.

In the camp across from Bagram, children starve to death. Their mothers tell Kathy they feel like they are going insane because of the constant worry that they can't feed their families. Female life expectancy has declined to 42 years since NATO came to town and stayed on.

Source: "Children killed by drone strikes"

A family invited Kathy to witness the injuries of their young daughter, lifting off the covers to show her damaged body, explained with one sinister word: "Drone." Kathy asked people, where do the drones comes from? "Nevada."

Now Kathy tells Afghan women that she knows, seamstresses in Kabul, that people in the U.S. think that NATO presence has improved women's rights. At this they have a hearty laugh. Their view is that Karzai's regime, backed by the military might of the U.S., has been able to get restrictive laws passed that even the Taleban was not able to push through. Laws making a woman subject to her husband pander to conservative elements whose support is needed to keep Karzai and cronies propped up.

Source: Russiablog.com

Kathy told us there is only one road in and out of the country at the eastern end of Afghanistan when Pakistan shuts down border crossings over incursions by Afghan troops hunting militants in Pakistan's territory. Or drone strikes, of which there are about two a week these days under Obomber. This one road's decrepit tunnel through the mountain allows 12 hours of traffic eastbound, followed by 12 hours westbound. It can take up to 17 days for an farmer to get a truckload of produce from field to market. Sometimes the cargo molds or rots before the truck gets through.

Kathy theorizes that if people in the U.S. can believe that U.S. wars are humanitarian wars, then they will go along without resisting.

Under the influence of Fox News, her own mother insisted that people in Iraq ought to be grateful to Americans for liberating them from Saddam Hussein, whom they could have gotten rid of on their own, but didn't. Kathy had been many times to Baghdad, bringing back the truth of life choked by sanctions, bombarded by Shock and Awe. But her mother insisted, "They should thank us."

I suppose Kathy's explanation is as good as any for why 2/3 of us are against the war in Afghanistan, but very few of us raise our voices to protest -- I was going to say the U.S.'s longest war but Kathy says it's wrong to call it that. The first Gulf War + 13 years of sanctions + a "withdrawal" that left tens of thousands of troops and contractors behind in Iraq is really the longest.

War is not even an issue this election season. It's the economy, stupid. And by the way,

Kathy is a faith-based activist who cries out against the war on the poor everywhere, from the prison-industrial system of this country, to the oppression of Palestinians, to the starving, freezing and mangling of children in the way of our access to the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea.

Source: "Who runs the Madhouse?" by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Her theory about our citizens' confusion and indifference reminds me of the phrase attributed to Jesus of Nazareth before giving instruction to groups: "For those who have ears to hear..."

Source: "Pump down the volume? Re people who watch movies in restaurants, cafes"