Sorry, but my wife and I have been sick for two weeks, and coincidentally, we’ve run out of patience with our neighborhood’s year-round mortar exploding “Ernest T. Bass.” His nighttime hobby terrorizes traumatized adults (including war zone survivors/veterans), infants, and pets alike — including two of the sweetest dogs we’ve ever known, Izzy and Darwin, generously shared by our awesome neighbors.
The last thing any of us needs is more suburban yokels detonating things in the vicinity of our otherwise tranquil “Bay Area Mayberry” home. Where we raise bees and grow tomatoes. And sleep… once we stop coughing.
In days gone by, I celebrated this holiday by screening the film “Gandhi” — for myself and whoever else I could entice to see it with me. Because, I figured, there’s more than one way to liberate a nation… and Ben Kingsley is simply fantastic in the title role. To this day, I find the film inspirational.
[BOOYAH FOR NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE! Nonviolent resistance liberated India from British colonial rule and ended Apartheid in South Africa. And it helped the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. notch real victories… until the Southern Strategy/New Jim Crow backlash in the 1970s-90s… and the 2013 evisceration of the Voting Rights Act… following Wall Street’s larcenous plunder of African-American households’ wealth, wiping out black families’ post-Civil Rights Era gains.]
This year, I’ve decided to mark Independence Day with a celebration of the free press.
Specifically, I’d like to honor one of the finest journalists America has ever produced: JEREMY SCAHILL, the award-winning co-founder of The Intercept and author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army” and “Dirty Wars,” among other acclaimed books.
Scahill’s recent report is so good that it’s forced me to accept that SOME ELEMENTS OF RUSSIAGATE ARE BASED IN FACT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2FlQHwi300
Although I’ve been a vocal RussiaGate skeptic — seeing far more debunked stories than evidence, to date — Jeremy Scahill’s report has introduced me to a legitimate, official Russia-Trump campaign link, dating as far back as the August 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, with Donald Trump, Jr., in attendance. Along with Erik Prince, America’s preeminent mercenary warlord.
Although I maintain that RussiaGate is primarily a propaganda campaign and a distraction, I have to admit that Scahill has apparently found an actual Trump-Moscow connection.
That said, Scahill’s report also confirms my hunch that the NEOCON AGENDA — ultimately targeting Iran — is the real center of gravity in this geopolitical tangle.
As this and other reports reveal, advancing the neocon agenda seems to be the ONLY major issue that the Trump folks had to talk about with the Russians, before and after the election.
Mind you, self-censoring corporate journalists will do all they can to keep Israel, the Saudis, UAE, and especially the neocons OUT of their breathless, error-riddled “Russia, Russia, Russia!” coverage; their stock in trade is xenophobic neo-McCarthyism, that which conditions the American people toward accepting war, even a World War.
BECAUSE BLOWING THINGS UP IS WHAT WE DO BEST… AND MOST.
Ask Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ukraine, Syria…
(Ask anyone. We’re famous for our bombing.)
Exposing the grimy, genocidal underside of American foreign policy is the last thing the corporate MSM is interested in doing.
But Jeremy Scahill doesn’t push narratives, he uncovers truths. History will get this right, even as the majority tune into FoxNews and MSNBC for partisan programming.
Oddball that I am, this is just my way of saying… HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Because, the way I see it, freedom is also for celebrating independent thinking. And independent journalism.
Not just for waking up sick people and scaring pets.
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Other Jeremy Scahill highlights of recent years:
Scahill on Canadian news during the Obama presidency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jUQjXTa4U8
Scahill predicting the future in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jD1bQYQj4&feature=share