Monthly Archives: March 2018

Arbor Music Video Aimed At Saving Dreamers

don arbor bigBy W. Leon Smith, Iconoclast Editor

SAN FRANCISCO – Don Arbor, with assistance from filmmakers and noted musicians, has created a music video, “Everyone Comes from Somewhere,” that encourages the welcoming of immigrants into the United States. The video includes the tracking of his own immigrant roots.

Arbor says he was inspired to write “Everyone Comes from Somewhere” to counter a disturbing tide of anti-immigrant sentiment that is in opposition to U.S. history. He says that although “we have our faults, we have mostly kept the doors open and the light of liberty shining, and that’s what truly makes us great. Today’s Dreamers are tomorrow’s citizens, just as our parents and grandparents became the patriotic Americans of today.”

San Francisco Bay Area filmmakers Charles Koppelman and Irene Young assisted in weaving a tapestry of images that portray America’s immigrant history, past and present, along with live footage from a 2017 live performance. The track includes musical performances by Barbara Higbie (of Windham Hill fame); lead guitarist Stef Burns; and Huey Lewis and the News.

Early reviews of the musical video have been positive, such as “a powerful statement in an unforgettable form” and “pristine vocals and a heartfelt message.”

The link to the musical video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AAAHX5w7S0

Arbor consented to an interview with The Lone Star Iconoclast, which follows:

don arbor youngICONOCLAST — I have watched your music video several times and find it very persuasive. What I find interesting is that your personal story forecasts today’s Dreamer issues. When composing “Everyone Comes from Somewhere,” what came first, the lyrics or the tune?

ARBOR – The first thing that came was the title and a conversation with an immigrant who was actually my mother’s caregiver when my mother was 90 years old and in her decline. Her personal story of the animosity she was feeling as an immigrant struck me as unfair, unsafe, and inappropriate, and triggered for me that everyone comes from somewhere as a way of saying we’re all kind of the same.

Common humanity was the theme I was trying to express to her. She said, ‘You should write a song about that.’ She knew I was a songwriter. I thought that’s a good idea. So, that title came without any melody. It just came as a thought. I was trying to express a common humanity as opposed to divisiveness that was affecting her personally and was affecting our society as a whole as the divisions are exacerbated by harsh rhetoric.

So then after that, it was a long period of time, really a year-and-a-half of writing. Whenever something struck me about the difficulties of coming to a new place, I would keep a file and I had a very hard time trying to narrow it down to the things that finally made it into the song.

I would say that the first verse came out pretty much whole. “Let me be the very first to welcome you” came out with the melody and the lyrics at the same time. The others I wasn’t sure that all fit into the same song or not, but it works.

ICONOCLAST — How long did it take to write and what was your methodology, and did you envision a video version from the start?

don arbor 2ARBOR – I didn’t envision a video exactly, but I am a very visual writer, so oftentimes when I am working on a song I do see images in my mind, but what happened with that, going back to your question about how long it took to write and what was my methodology, I basically set a deadline for myself for a show my band was doing. That was in the spring of last year, April of 2017.

I thought if I set a deadline that’ll make me come up with how to make these ideas fit together, and that worked, and then at the show one of my good friends who’s a filmmaker was there and he came up after the show and told me how much he liked the show and I said that maybe we could work up a video together.

Once we met and talked about that, a lot of the images that were already brewing in my mind started to come up to the foreground instead of being way in the back.

ICONOCLAST — Songs are written for different reasons, some merely to entertain and others to enlighten.  How would you categorize yours?

ARBOR – I have written some songs that are mostly just to entertain, but it’s really not the main goal I have. Even when I’m writing songs that are lighter in subject matter I’m usually trying to say something that’s true. I’m not writing to fill four minutes or three minutes of air space.

If you go to my website there’s a recent song I did. It’s called “It Should Have Been Me.” It’s very lighthearted. I wrote that after my wife told me about a great trip she had taken many years ago with an ex-boyfriend. I just thought it’s a great story, but it should have been me. That song was a true feeling and everything that I put out there I try to make it a true feeling and not just entertainment.

With a song like “Everyone Comes from Somewhere” there’s a more over-arching awareness of the world around me. I’m trying to make a personal statement that reaches other people in a way that communicates how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking and hopefully their reaction will be encouraging, positive, thoughtful and it communicates something to them.

ICONOCLAST — I once interviewed classical pianist Van Cliburn who said that classical music is not to entertain, but to nurture and expand the mind. Do you feel that your song falls into that category, as well, what with the political issues that are ever-present today?

ARBOR – I almost have to laugh that I am included in the same sentence as Van Cliburn who I admired growing up. I knew that he was a world-renowned, prize-winning prodigy. I don’t consider my musicianship being in that category, but I appreciate the sentiment and I do hope that my songs will open some avenue of thought and experience that the listener hasn’t had before or that gives them a new perspective on.

ICONOCLAST – One thing about Cliburn is that he didn’t write his own songs.

ARBOR – No, he didn’t.

ICONOCLAST – I asked him if he had ever considered doing a score for a movie, and he said no, but he might think about that, but he never did.

ARBOR – How long ago did you interview him?

ICONOCLAST – It was in 1995.

ARBOR – I have this memory of him back in the 60s, getting recognition for winning some prize in a competition. Was that part of your interview?

ICONOCLAST – I think the competition was in Moscow. The reason I interviewed him was that his grandfather founded the newspaper that I was publishing, so he had family history that went back. We had a centennial edition and he invited me to his mansion in Fort Worth. We were there about two or three hours.

ARBOR – That’s quite an experience.

ICONOCLAST — You noted that your family immigrated to the United States, which compares to the founding of our nation, made up largely of immigrants. Do you think the description of America’s being a melting pot is a viable argument for the Dreamers?

ARBOR – Another very complex question. The simple answer is yes.

The more complicated answer is that in our history as a nation of immigrants, we’ve gone through historic tensions between the instinct to welcome strangers to our shores on the one hand, and competing instinct to protect what people feel as their homeland against the same immigrants and we’re experiencing that on a magnified level currently because of our president and what he has to say.

So, the idea of building a wall is a waste of money and won’t be effective. I think of the wall as a physical symbol of division, which is much more relevant on a social and psychological plain by the tweets and the insults, using expletives to describe certain countries and looking for immigrants who are from white Nordic countries the negative stereotypes that are blatantly false, about immigrants from Central America and Mexico.

I’ve done some research on this and the fact of the matter is that immigrants are less likely to be involved in criminal activities than native-born U.S. citizens and that’s been documented by our own National Academy of Sciences.

When someone in leadership comes up and compares immigrants to rapists and drug dealers, that’s just so wrong and it’s not true. It’s intentionally divisive to create a voting block among those who feel they want someone else to look down on.

The idea of a melting point that you are asking about suggests that everyone goes into the same stew and comes out in one bowl. But there are people who are trying to make that not happen, so yes, I do think that overall America is a great melting pot and that example is why you have a reputation as a magnet for people from other cultures who think that America is a shining beacon, but once you get here, the reality is that there’s going to be a lot of feelings going both ways and the people in leadership really should be encouraging what Abe Lincoln called the better angels of our nature and not the worst demons.

ICONOCLAST — I assume that the big question lies in the influx of immigrants who did not follow laws set forth for immigration and will perhaps now be deported, leaving children behind. Do you think that illegal aliens who have ignored these laws should be provided the same rights as legal aliens?

ARBOR – I don’t know if you want to talk about the Dreamers, who came as children when they had no choice in the matter and have already been granted some form of legal status. I do think it’s a good starting point because 80-90 percent of the country thinks that those Dreamers should be allowed to stay. They didn’t come by choice, they didn’t break any laws. They were children.

The Dreamers have to be either in school or have a diploma. They can’t have any serious criminal records. They are teachers and doctors and ministers and they are in the military and there’s no reason that I can see to be deporting or ending the semi-legal status of the Dreamers. We should be looking for a way to solidify what is already a strong contribution to the fabric of our society.

So the idea of using them as a bargaining chip – we’ll give you the Dreamers if you give us reducing the immigration quota by 50 percent and if you give us no more family unification – to me, those are not fair trade-offs.

That being said, I do acknowledge that there is a logic to giving some preference to people who have come into the country legally, but if you look a layer back from that, you have to look at what are the laws and why are those laws in place and are we enforcing them in a selective or fair manner.

If, for example, you have immigrants that are being targeted for deportation if they are people of color or they are from Central America whereas, as a prime example the President’s in-laws, Melania’s parents, are here on a green card, as far as what I read in the papers, although they don’t answer all the questions.

I do think there is an issue of fairness the selectivity of enforcement, so I wouldn’t want to see the idea of deporting undocumented immigrants as an excuse to exacerbate those tensions I was talking about earlier.

ICONOCLAST – I recently read that the top three surnames in Texas have changed from Smith, Johnson and Jones to Garcia, Smith, and Martinez, due in large part to illegal immigration. Do you think this is a good thing?

ARBOR – I don’t know all the details you’re talking about. Certainly California also has a lot of immigration, both legal and illegal and I don’t want to claim knowledge of statistics that I’ve never read about. One thing that I did read about recently is a book by Dennis Carroll. He is a seminarian from Colorado with a Guatemalan parent and an American parent and one of the things I read there, I’m pretty sure, is that there are a very large number of legal citizens of Spanish language descent.

So, I would want to know before assuming too much about that which you talked about, how many people named Garcia or Martinez are already legal citizens from generations past. The balance could be a very large number of illegal immigrants or could be just a very small number that happens to be on top of those who are already here legally and some from generations past. So I can’t comment whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing in absolute terms.

ICONOCLAST – Do you think your movement on behalf of Dreamers will ultimately impact a positive outcome, given lawmakers who want to build a wall?

ARBOR – I think that the answer is going to depend on November 2018. We have a minority government. We like to think of ourselves as a democracy and in some ways we are because we get to vote, but when you look at the fact that every branch of the government was elected by a minority of the United States population, that’s a problem.

Every state gets two senators. We have 37 million people like California or 600,000 people like Montana or Wyoming. I’m sure they are actually larger now, but I have a memory of driving through Montana when I was 11 years old and the Chamber of Commerce had put an ad on the radio that says Montana is Big Sky Country and we’ve got 600,000 people and room for 600,000 more.

The point of it is that it takes 20 states to add up to California and those 20 states have 40 senators and 30 of them are Republicans and 10 are Democrats. So when you look at the map of it the senate is a 51-seat majority of Republicans who represent a minority population-wise.

When you look at the President, it is well known that he lost the popular vote. When you look at congress, you have gerrymandered districts, for example Pennsylvania where the vote was 50-50, the result was 13 Republicans and five Democrats because they pack the Democrats into a small number of districts and get fewer representatives. So the Democrats have some tough walls to climb – that’s just a metaphor – some obstacles to get over to get into a position where they can either set policy or swap the policies that are currently being promoted.

Now how that affects the wall is that Trump is trying to use the Dreamers as a bargaining chip to get the wall that he thinks somehow would help us. There’s pressure on the Democrats to agree to that because they are so supportive of the Dream population being admitted that they might give something up, something like these walls. If the Democrats prevail in the House of Representatives in the fall of 2018, I think that’s history for the wall.

ICONOCLAST – Your music video is somewhat like an “anthem,” just like “The Star-Spangled Banner” was an anthem based on immigrants settling in the new world. Do you see “Somewhere” and its message catching on among the millennials and perhaps aiding in awareness and ideologies that support the Dreamer population for future generations?

ARBOR – I have had a lot of very popular response to the song and the video. Some of it is from younger people, some of it is from older folks like me. I didn’t aim it at the millennials. To the extent it reaches them, I’m very happy about that. I do like the songs that communicate. I do write because I feel strongly about what I’m saying, so whatever group responds to it I’m happy about it and I have two millennial sons, a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old, and certainly they are very much more open to immigrants than some of the older population. I do think that is the wave of the future.

ICONOCLAST – Are there any other comments you would like to make?

ARBOR – I guess I’d like to say that one of my inspirations is a poem by Maya Angelou called  the “Human Family” that has a great line in it where she says that we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike. “I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”

That is how I feel. No matter what policy we wind up with, we should administer it with an eye toward our common humanity instead of divisiveness, even if the policy is to enforce the immigration laws to the letter or more strongly than they are currently. It shouldn’t be done selectively and with hatred. It shouldn’t be done in a way that promotes division. To the extent we can focus on our common humanity, the prospects for a better future will be increased.

USS Liberty Started A Trend

Dying for Israel: Apparently, the USS Liberty started a trend

By Jane Stillwater

 https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/03/dying-for-israel-apparently-uss-liberty.html

Author’s note:  If you haven’t already noticed by now, I truly do dislike Israeli neo-colonialists and Saudi neo-colonialists.  Hell, I don’t even like American neo-colonialists.   Why can’t everybody just stay home where they belong!  And also how come  everyone gets on my case for calling out Israelis and Saudis — but if I  were to lie through my teeth about Russia, Syria, Iran or North Korea, I’d get all kinds of applause?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziAK91AEEl8&feature=youtu.be

stillwater 2 big     According to Lt. General Richard Clark, U.S. ground troops are now “prepared to die for the Jewish [sic] state”.   https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-operation-juniper-cobra-a-harbinger-of-war-on-syria-hezbollah/238768/

Too late, General Clark!  Lots of American soldiers have already died for Israel.

For instance, just ask Joe Meadors, a survivor of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty back in 1967.  After nine hours of surveillance on the hapless ship, Israeli fighter jets then continuously bombed and strafed the USS Liberty while Israeli torpedo boats opened fire on it.  This deadly bombardment lasted more than an hour, killing 34 American military personnel and ripping two rather large American flags into shreds.  https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/deadly-attack-on-uss-liberty-gets-new-attention/

And then there’s Iraq.  4,424 American soldiers died there.  According to US Senator Ernest Hollings back in the day, “With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country?  The answer:  President Bush’s policy to secure Israel.”  https://theshalomcenter.org/node/621

And then there is Syria.  American soldiers have been keeping Israeli neo-colonialists’ irons in the fire there since 2011.  We’ll never know how many American soldiers have died there.  And we’ll never be allowed to know either.  https://www.thenation.com/article/bulking-up-on-special-operations-forces-in-2018-will-not-stop-terrorism/

So, yeah.  American soldiers have already been dying for “the Jewish state” — or at least for Israeli neo-colonialists’ lust for power in the Middle East.

Civilian Americans have also died recently when a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Miami.  America seems to have no money left to repair its infrastructure — but there’s still lots of money left to get American soldiers killed in the Middle East.  Israeli neo-colonialists must be totally happy that this is still a thing, still a trend.

So.  What does all this “Dying for Israel” fad have to do with little old me?  Am I being anti-Semitic?  Nah, I’m just still pissed off that Israeli thugs threw me out of Palestine last September.  “We are trying to keep Israel safe,” they said.  What?  Huh?  Safe from ME?  https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2017/09/grilled-my-experience-at-israeli-border.html

PS:  When I toured the Senate and House chambers on Capitol Hill the other day, I forgot to ask all those war-mongering lawmakers if they too were willing to “Die for Israel”.  But apparently not.  Apparently it’s okay for others to “Die for Israel” — but not them.  They gotta stay alive and well so they can still get their dark-money campaign contributions from the Israelis and the Saudis (not from the Russians BTW).  https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/15/iraq-death-toll-15-years-after-us-invasion

********

        Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world.

And while you’re at it, please buy my books:  https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM

How To Actually Drain The Swamp

HEAD - EDITORIAL 04President Trump is draining the swamp – of his own appointees – and doing nothing to disfigure the political crime-wave that has astounded the American populace with governmental ineptitude for many decades.

swamp eddy big USEActually, the ineptitude belongs to the voting public for allowing greed-borne officials to attain office in the first place and to build upon their ill-gotten wealth to assure success in re-election after re-election, flouting the power of incumbency.

But it is not entirely their fault, either, because political parties tend to limit their picks to career politicians or their families as the most horrible choices from which to choose. It is not a positive, but a huge negative in the general elections. “Who will do the least harm?”

Political parties think it’s easy to control nitwits with highly questionable backgrounds, so that’s what they give us.

The Iconoclast has taken “draining the swamp” to task and with the help of two experts who have studied governance for many years has developed a workable plan to make it happen in less than 10 years, maybe as few as five.

The basic purpose is to remove the influence of both Democrats and Republicans from American culture, to take away the power of political parties that dictate when grid-lock occurs, and to order all elected officials to stand on their own two feet.

The author of this editorial is a former small-city mayor, elected to three two-year terms, whose aldermen did not run based on political party and were not influenced by party politics. Its members were individualists who made decisions on their own, standing on their own two feet, and voting in a manner that they felt best represented their constituents.

It was not a matter of Republicans vs. Democrats, or right vs. left, or liberals vs. conservatives. The concept was more in league with that great statesman of yore William Jennings Bryan and his humanitarian approach to progressivism which many cities have long embraced because it involves dealing directly with the masses.

In a meeting of the minds with two very reclusive subjects who are experts in political dissection, The Iconoclast has not only developed an outcome but also a game plan designed to rid the swamp of maggots while in the process to build bridges that will re-institute the vim, vigor, and growth of the middle classes.

The first individual who offered input goes by the name of Lowell McIntyre, a rancher who was the subject of a book entitled “Epitaph” about his Bee Rock Philosopher days. He has studied the ramifications of politics his entire lifetime, its ups and downs, its malady for greed, and how political parties are like murderers who keep interjecting themselves into the crime-solving process to screw things up.

The other was a scientific recruit who has intensely studied the effects of reverse “suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus” and its impact on embryonic political behavior as the fetus loses its ability to detect the difference between chivalry and ethical deficiency. Dr. Manfred Meriwether does not normally offer his expertise, but felt that the nation is at a tipping point and it is crucial for immediate action.

He said, “Doors are quickly opening and closing, and generally not in favor of the American public. The choice of which doors to open and which to close is, in today’s world, of extreme importance.”

He, too, favored a resurgence of the middle classes and offered this quote from a movie, “There now, you see how more people be. That there’s what you might call a doorway to a place of enchantment.”

THE GAME PLAN

According to the Bee Rock Philosopher, a man known for his down-to-earth savvy, the first step is to think outside the box and do something that at first sounds like attempting the opposite to gain the proper finished product.

“Join with the Democrats and Republicans,” he explained. “It does not matter which state you are from, but all states need to participate for the needed numbers. We need to form a group that is linked nationally. In stealth mode, run a Democratic and a Republican candidate in each statewide and national race, each of these candidates popular and electable who shares our concept and is secretly willing to do something unheard of upon being elected.

“It does not matter which of the candidates finally wins in the general election, but one of them must. Let them ride and do their usual service when they win. But in the next election, in which the original candidates are still in office, do the same thing, loft a Republican and a Democrat as candidates and get one of them elected. Run the numbers in the House and Senate, and when enough of our constituents are elected to be able to change policy and override a presidential veto, set a date. It is now time for all of our elected group to resign from their political parties and vote to change the law whereby you don’t have to be a Republican or Democrat to get elected. Independents and individuals will now have a chance, too.

“Change the way politics works, whereby elected officials cannot run for re-election. They serve just one term. They cannot get involved in the endorsement of and the campaigning for other candidates.

If it is a four-year term, the final two years are no longer spent trying to get re-elected or going on lavish vacations funded by taxpayers. They are, basically, full-time officials with only one chance to do what’s right.

Ban intervention from political parties in the creation of policy. The elected official stands on his own two feet and can vote however he wishes, knowing that he has only one shot in that position. There are millions of people who are qualified for each position, so let’s give them a chance.

“He can run for a different office, but not while he is serving his current term. Political contributions by corporations will be outlawed, as will contributions from think-tanks and 501-C 3 entities, along with lobbyist groups. If an office-holder violates this trust, he will be immediately removed from office.”

Dr. Meriwether explained that this concept would force lawmakers to reassess their positions. “Republicans and Democrats could still offer candidates, but upon election the winner would be forced to immediately resign from the party and serve as an individual, free from the shackles of the party machine. The psychological impact would be immense.

“It would also serve best to do away with run-off elections, instead having voters rate candidates, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. as to their preferences. If a candidate falls short of 50 percent, step down to the second choice and recalculate both sets, and so forth, until a candidate attains enough votes. If an officeholder is removed from office, the appointment to fill an unexpired term goes to the second-place candidate, eliminating special elections or political appointments. The appointment is therefore being made by the voters.

“Basically, for this plan to work, you would be finding like-minded candidates who crave this type of change and are committed to it, get them elected based on the highly corrupt old-style format currently in place, and then abruptly, when enough are elected, sweep in and force party resignations and make changes to the electoral process. Do away with the electoral college and base all elections on popular vote, since the electoral college essentially makes many votes not count and provides the likelihood of a government by the minority. If you vote, you want it to count. It doesn’t matter where you are from,” offered Dr. Merriwether.

The end result of this type of change as voiced by our two experts would deflate the power of the minority few and would bring new power to the middle classes, while really putting America first, not just with lip service to falsely make us comfortable.

We agree with Trump in that the swamp must be drained. When we learn that someone in national or statewide office is running for re-election, we automatically cringe. They have become career politicians who embrace their political parties as their rulers. When elected, they are not subject to the populace, but are being controlled by big corporations, big money from lobbyists, greed, and of course, their party.

Because of their lack of interest in having changes made in the electoral process, for it will not favor them and will shroud them with transparency, they have become maggots feeding on the highly partisan antiquated system that put them there.

This plan is a workable way to truly drain the swamp and must be done to bring integrity back to government and to revive the vanishing middle class citizenry.

It will take leaders to pull this off and individuals who are willing to actually do something to make it happen, which is also the proverbial roadblock, for few people have the guts to do it. They are quick to belch whines, but are dainty and timid when it comes to action. We hope we are proven wrong about this.

Trump says he is going to drain the swamp.

He won’t.

The Iconoclast sent him an e-mail prior to his taking office suggesting that the first thing he should do upon filling Obama’s seat was to resign from the Republican party and become a president of all the people and distance himself from the minority elite.

You know what his answer was, quite the opposite on all counts.

It is therefore now incumbent upon ourselves to drain the swamp for him.

–W. Leon Smith

See Something, Say Something

See something, say something:

“Those idiots in Washington are gonna get us all killed!”

HEAD - STILLWATERBy Jane Stillwater 

https://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2018/03/see-something-say-something-those.html

      “Hello, Homeland Security?  This is Jane Stillwater.  I’m in Washington DC right now and just overheard someone plotting to blow up the whole freaking world.  If you don’t stop them right now, America could be end up as a NUCLEAR WASTELAND!” I screamed into the phone.  https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/02/18/us-is-executing-global-war-plan.html

stillwater 1   “Calm down, lady.  Just tell us what you heard.”

“Some dude who identified himself with the obvious code name of ‘Lt. General Richard Clark’ was talking about plans for a false-flag operation that involved blowing up parts of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Gaza — murdering children, targeting civilians!  It was horrible!  You MUST do something to stop him!”  https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-us-operation-juniper-cobra-a-harbinger-of-war-on-syria-hezbollah/238768/

“Ma’am, we have no control over what happens outside of America.  Plus you could be just imagining all this.”  Calling me crazy, is he?  Well, I’ll show him!

“The dude actually said with his mouth that the intention of all these attacks was to vilify Russia and China, enough to get them all pissed off and into a shooting war.  But it’s not NICE to piss off Mother Russia!  Then some other dude talked about being in cahoots with Ukraine neo-Nazi bad guys with a plan in place to blow up Russian-speaking Donbas!  You’ve got to stop these people before Russia finally loses patience with the idiots in Washington and drops nuclear bombs on us in return!  Please!” https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-warns-us-against-attacking-syrian-forces/5631930

stillwater 1 b      I also tried to tell DHS how I overheard the king of Saudi Arabia plotting to send whole planeloads of gold bullion to buy off Congress (again) so that the Saudis could continue to massacre Yemeni babies at will — without any tiresome meddling by stupid American busybodies still tied down with the lead weight of conscience.  And also how the evil Saudi neo-colonialists were in league with the evil Israeli neo-colonialists in their plot to steal everything in the Middle East that wasn’t tied down and then become a super-power themselves — with America in the role of the red-headed stepchild.  http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21264:Gideon-Levy:-The-Zionist-Tango:-Step-Left,-Step-Right

But the Homeland Security guy hung up on me.

So much for “See something, say something.”  Humph.

PS:  Other than the fact that Washington DC is the home of a bunch of feral idiots who risk American lives daily in their insane quest for diabolical power, the District of Columbia itself is a wonderful place.  I got to tour the Senate, the House of Representatives, the International Spy Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court — and also attended a hope-inspiring rally and march staged by Hasidic Jews in protest of Israeli corruption and war-mongering.  https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2018/03/13/instead-of-being-in-jail-haspel-is-cia-director.html

The National Portrait Gallery had an excellent and intimate exhibit of the writing of Sylvia Plath.  Fascinating and tragic at the same time.  And I almost got thrown out of the Gallery itself by some irate docent when I tried to cut in line to see the new portrait of Michelle Obama.  But I got my revenge.  I bought the postcard instead and took a selfie with it..

“150 people are standing in line to see Michelle’s portrait right now,” I said to one of the guards there.  “I wonder how many people will stand in line to see a portrait of Melania.”  The guard and I both laughed.  But actually, it’s not Melania’s fault that Americans are more interested in Stormy Daniels than they are in her.

Hell, Americans are far more interested in Stormy Daniels than even in the fact the the power-mad idiots in Washington are trying to blow us all up.  But at least some of the DC Metro stations I rode through are far enough underground to serve as bomb shelters.  I wonder if I should start building a bomb shelter too when I get home.  Couldn’t hurt, might help.

********

        Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world.

And while you’re at it, please buy my books:  https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM

‘Getting Life’ A Must Read

HEAD - EDITORIAL 03Texans need to read Michael Morton’s new book, Getting Life, An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey From Prison To Peace.

The memoir details his life in prison after being erroneously convicted of killing his wife, and the ordeals that pervade in a justice system that has again failed.

The horrible murder occurred on Aug. 13, 1986, in which his wife, Christine, was savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple’s bed after Mr. Morton had gone to work. His son was an eyewitness who said that it was not his father who committed the murder, but law enforcement politics dismissed this and pompous officers aggressively pegged Morton with the killing anyway. It wasn’t until DNA evidence became available and the testing of a bandanna with the killer’s DNA on it that Morton was finally released. It was also learned that the same murderer had killed another woman in a similar fashion near the Morton house.

getting life BIGAs has happened frequently in other Texas cases, evidence had been collected just a few days after the murder that was never investigated. The rush to convict even an innocent person was the paramount goal of authorities.

The book includes information logged by Morton as a prisoner – recollections, court transcripts, and journals he penned during the two-and-a-half decades of incarceration where he was stripped of his freedom and was subject to the real dangers and hellacious ineptitude of Texas prison life.

Morton describes the inner workings of the prison system in great detail and the heartbreaking mental conflicts that he went through. For instance, a truly innocent person in Texas does not qualify or parole, since the inmate has to admit the crime and show remorse. Do you lie about your innocence in order to qualify and forever possess the label of confessed murderer even if you didn’t do it, allowing a free pass to the real killer who can continue to murder, or do you remain steadfast in the truth that you are innocent and perhaps spend the rest of your life in prison? There were also conflicts regarding family members who knew he was innocent but felt incapable of proving it because of dramatic flaws in the justice system that is fraught with roadblocks for those wanting truth to prevail.

DNA testing was not available 25 years ago. Now it is, which has caused the release of many innocent victims whereby law enforcement personnel have protected the guilty parties and gone after the wrong man.

Recently it came to light that personnel in the DPS labs have for years lied about results in order to obtain convictions, which throws into question whether their trust is ever warranted.  One lab individual had over 3,000 such cases that came into question, where errors were purposely made. This has caused backtracking on cases and the release of several innocent people. However, some had already served their full term. Again, the powers that be protected the guilty in accomplice fashion, allowing the guilty to continue to commit crimes while destroying the lives of the innocent.

We highly recommend Morton’s book Getting Life. It is an adventure nobody should ever have to take. His writing style is compelling, his descriptions moving, and the story itself one of a kind. It’s a book that you won’t be able to put down.

Two endorsements on the back cover are noteworthy:

Dan Rather wrote, “A true Texas story of how our system of justice can itself be criminal. Michael Morton’s powerful take will take you with him into mourning, into prison, and finally, thankfully, back out into the light.”

David R. Dow, founder of the Texas Innocence network, wrote: “Imagine spending 25 years in prison for a murder you did not commit. Imagine the murder victim was your wife, the love of your life. And imagine it all happened because prosecutors and law enforcement officials cooked up a case against you and hid evidence that would have identified the real killer. Michael Morton doesn’t have to imagine, because he lived it. It’s usually a cliché to say someone has been to hell and back, but in Morton’s case that is exactly what happened, and his stunning and lyrical account of the journey will break your heart, then make you mad, and finally fill you with hope.”

The book can be ordered on Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Life-Innocent-25-Year-Journey/dp/1476756821. There is also a DVD version entitled An Unreal Dream – The Michael Morton Story, which also gets high praise. It is a documentary film by Al Reinert and can also be ordered from the same Amazon link previously provided.

— W. Leon Smith

March 2018
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