Alan MacDonald's Comments

News From Antiwar.com : Israeli Officials: Attack on Iran Must Come 'By Summer'

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 16:31:10 +0000

I'm not religious --- I'm a Unitarian Universalist --- but I still pray for the Iranian children (and the world's children) with regard to the looming plans of this disguised and violent post-nation-state global 'Vichy Empire'. Best luck and love to the "Occupy Empire" educational and revolutionary movement. Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality Over Violent/Vichy Empire, Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Information Clearing House - News you won't find on CNN : Â Washington Moves The World Closer To War : Information Clearing House

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:29:42 +0000

You would be absolutely correct to say that the corporatist Empire's media is not up-setting the rubes with ANY information about a looming WWIII. Miss America info, yes. Golden Globe info, of course. Patriots and Broncos game, full coverage. But the little matter of half the population of the world possibly being incinerated by thermo-nuclear war, "not so much"! Of course our former country, which has been 'captured' and 'Occupied' by a disguised corporate/financial/militarist global EMPIRE, by hiding behind the facade of the empire's bought and owned, modern, TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux-democratic and totally illegitimate government --- just as surely as the Nazi Empire 'captured' and 'Occupied' France under its crude, first generation, and single-party 'Vichy' facade --- doesn't deserve to be discussed by the media at all, as it might get the citizens; thinking, too curious, up-set, engaged, even agitated to the point of "civil unrest". You would also be dead-right that the average, honest, empathetic, and hard working citizens of Israel and the US are vastly in favor of world peace, fair economics, justice, real democracy, equality, etc, etc., but they are far more likely to be headed to the slaughter-house of unending imperialist wars, domestic looting, tyranny, and injustice by the multiple phony 'Vichy' parties that front for the global 'Vichy Empire' in the US, Israel, UK, Germany, France, and most other former countries in this post-nation-state world in which the NWO's disguised “Vichy Empire” uses racism, nationalism, fundamentalist religion, and big big LIES to deceive and screw all citizens of the world. The global Empire, thinking that it is God, enforces a message much different and less empathetic than WWII POW and witness to the fire bombing of Dresden, black-humorist author, skeptic, freethinker, Unitarian Universalist, agnostic, atheist, and former honorary president of the American Humanist Association, Kurt Vonnegut, who famously and frequently repeated his comment from "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" which comes as part of a baptismal speech the protagonist says he's planning for his neighbors' twins: "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind." No, this God damn global Empire is certainly not kind. And this God damn Empire will precipitate war through either of these phony shills auditioning for president. Obama is not being 'lured into war' by Mittens. Both these shills of the global corporate/financial/militarist (and media) Empire are merely auditioning for the roll of faux-Emperor/president, and both of these whores of Empire will carry-out the exact same pro-war, pro-tyranny, pro-looting, and pro-Empire policies, with the only difference being their relative skills at deceiving citizens/voters into passively acceding to the Empire's will. If a "business-like" and "no-nonsense" approach is of more value to the underLYING Empire, then Romney will be made into the next faux-Emperor/president. But if the more emotive, "we're in this together" but phony empathetic lip-biting act is judged more beneficial to the Empire, then Obama will be retained as the faux-Emperor/president. Only an alternative third-party overtly anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and publicly anti-EMPIRE candidate could change the arc of Empire by one bit. The principled anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and anti-Empire libertarian right has the guts to forward such a serious candidate (Ron Paul) --- who will mount a third party run beyond the phony Republican dog and pony show. Hopefully, the principled anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and anti-Empire social/economic democracy left will also forward a serious candidate to challenge Obama in the phony Democrat dog and pony show --- who will then mount a third party run, perhaps even in concert with the libertarian "Against Empire". Best luck and love to the “Occupy Empire” educational movement. Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality Over Violent/Vichy Empire, Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

NewsReal Blog : The New York Times Wants To Suppress Free Speech Of Other Corporations

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:37:38 +0000

How symbolic and hopefully prescient a warning it could be that a Mr. Brown, wearing a shirt, came to Washington on the same day that 'our' supreme court made a ruling which will surely allow ‘brown shirts’ of Empire. One can not overstate the assault on democracy that has been launched in this pre-planned attack that will "live in infamy" from the ruling-elite's Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire ---- which until now has been only guilefully controlling 'our' country by hiding behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy (aided by much of the equally 'Vichy' corporatist MSM). Yes, there are significant differences between the events in Germany of the 1930’s and America today: 1. The evolving Empire in Germany was nationalist in scope, though global in appetite and claims (“Thousand Year Reich”), while the evolving Empire, only currently headquartered here, is overtly global in scope from the get go (since Empire is a pathology of economics first and politics only second, and must be global if planned by any but a mad-man). This economic primacy reflects Sheldon Wolin’s critique of modern Empire toward ‘inverted fascism’, where economic power is senior partner in the merger of corporate and state. 2. The fast evolving Empire HQ in America is following a far more modern, sophisticated, long-term and guileful path than a Blitzkrieg and occupation of another country (competing national empire) with a crude first-generation, one-party ‘Vichy’ thin-veil of disguise. This Empire is “Friendly Fascism” (Bertram Gross), so far --- although only in the U.S. However, Hannah Arendt’s prescient truth about empire must be taken very seriously now, “Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home”. 3. Naturally, given the superior long term planning and non-human corporatist nature of this modern beast, there are many structural differences in the political manipulations, modern ‘shock doctrine’ pseudo-events, and infinitely more polished (softer) propaganda techniques that have been employed in the current global Empire take-over than were common to the Nazi path to power. No single human Chancellor was overtly appointed. There was no thin-veiled Reichstag fire used. The rein of Gleichschaltung, and other extra-judicial rulings have not so obviously been applied. 4. There’s possibly a bit more time (and willingness) for the U.S. citizens (and a Global People’s Movement) to confront this Global corporatist Empire --- as I wrote before the supreme court ruling: “We are not quite yet in a situation like those trapped in Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Dachau, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the only choice was between the "least worst" of the Nazis or their non-German guards. However, we do not have the luxury that any formerly comfortable population might have enjoyed, of depending on their robust civil freedoms in a stable Republic, calling on their normal financial resources, and support of democracy in a Republic sliding down-hill fast on a slippery slope. The surprise can come quicker than the population of such a country senses, as it did in the 1930’s in Germany --- until it is too late --- and today, there is no boat to the freedom and safety of a by-gone America that even one as smart as Einstein can take. Everyone in America needs to put all their best efforts, financial resources, and the "good will of men" (as Kennedy said during the Cuban Missile Crisis) to the task of saving democracy and our 'shared' world from Global Empire. It is only through the solidarity of a Global People's Movement that we can mutually survive the coming Holocaust. As was presciently and poetically said by Martin Neimoller: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.” Remember this, like it was itched by a laser in your brain: Today, those freely speaking of liberalism in America are already gone --- Those who speak in America of the kind of sustainable ‘social democracy’ that all of Europe and Japan adopted after their Empire experience of WWII are gone --- Those who dare to openly call for socialism are gone --- and prevented from even using that nasty word in their Senate title are silenced. The unions have been decimated without a whisper of resistance. The blacks, and immigrants, and poor, and working poor, and now even the supposed American invented ‘middle-class’ are disenfranchised without a whimper. Then they will come for you --- and your choice now (but NOT THEN) will only be, “Are you for democracy or EMPIRE” --- so make your choice for inclusiveness and democracy smartly and strongly, or accept your fate to Global Empire foolishly.” Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Who Will Protest Obama's War?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:24:02 +0000

Justin, you ask, "Who Will Protest Obama’s War?" And the answer is that nobody should protest Obama's escalation of war in Afghanistan -- if Obama does his typical great job of salesmanship next Tuesday night. IN fact, the rumor is that Obama is going to meld the best of the hopeful 1960's Vietnam anti-war generation with a timeless reprising of cultural and social icons --- wrap it all together with the production skills of a Hollywood extravaganza and throw in some lyrical highlights to have everyone dreaming the same dream and sharing the same 'hope'. The title of his speech will reportedly be: "All I am saying, --- is give War a Chance". Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Say Nyet to Afghanistan

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:32:49 +0000

Gorbachev recognizes that he should have said nyet sooner. But the 'next to the last' Empire dithered, and was bled to death by the 'last empire on earth'. Now that last Empire on earth ---- the global ruling-elite corporate/financial Empire, that controls our country by hinding behind the facade of its tow-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy ---- is continuing downthe same path of self-destruction. Whether Obama has the courage and brains to take an 'off ramp' or not, the outcome will be the same ---- Empire will end as a form of ideology and control ---- the only difference is whether there will be a sustainable, democratic, and populated world left for us. But that's a pretty big difference. Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : The Winds of Change Die Down

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:15:20 +0000

Justin is right in noting that those 'Winds of Change have Died Down" both 'at home' and 'abroad'. He is also right that this is caused by the pathology of Empire, and quotes Garet Garrett: "We can have an empire, or we can have our old republic back. We cannot have both." We could quote Hannah Arendt that this dying effect of Empire also kills domestically and abroad: "Empire abroad entails tyranny at home". It's certainly abundantly clear today that when Obama told us, before the election, that Bill Ayers of SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) had absolutely no influence on him, that he was telling the truth ---- because Obama has 'sure as hell' not been doing anything to fight for a 'democratic society' (against economic oppression, racism, imperialist wars, etc. etc.). Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

News From Antiwar.com : Obama Already Approved Another 13,000 Troops for Afghan War

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:47:45 +0000

I think we just had a little bit of that "ol' okie dokie", that Obama warned about during his campaign, played on us with this non-transparent troop escalation ---- and the non-transparenter and champion okie dokier was the O man himself. Alan MacDonald

Antiwar.com Original Articles : US Foreign Policy, Rudyard Kipling, and the Libertarian Theory of the State

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:49:22 +0000

Justin excellent article. The 'divine powers' of our 'imperial' president are not surprising given that our country has been taken over by a ruling-elite corporate/financial EMPIRE, which controls all socio-political-economic power by hiding behind the facade of its 'owned' two-party (monopoly) 'Vichy' sham of a democratic republic. Dylan Ratigan the host of MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" is beginning a campaign to expose and name this corporatist EMPIRE, by tagging it with the catchy phrase, "Corporate Communism". All principled progressives and those who believe in Liberty should repeat this phrase "Corporate Communism" and help the campaign to expose this corporatist EMPIRE hiding in our kitchen of democracy. Here's why this battle of 'contested concepts' against the corporatist Empire WILL work: http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did... Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Draft created on October 6, 2009 at 3:27 pm

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:32:42 +0000

Ira and Tom rightly state, "The Israeli nuclear arsenal has begun creeping toward the light of day. Soon enough, to everyone’s surprise, it may become part of the conversation even in the United States." While this is good news for reality based policies in the U.S. (and the world) a similar, and related truth is also "creeping toward the light of day, (and) soon enough, to everyone’s surprise, it may (also) become part of the conversation even in the United States." --- and that related reality is that 'our' country is controlled by a guileful ruling-elite corporate/financial Empire that hides behind the facade of its two-party, 'Vichy' sham of democracy (aided by an equally 'Vichy' corporatist MSM ---that hides this truth). Dylan Ratigan the host of MSNBC's "Morning Meeting" is beginning a campaign to expose and name this corporatist EMPIRE, by tagging it with the catchy phrase, "Corporate Communism". All principled progressives and those who believe in Liberty should repeat this phrase "Corporate Communism" and help the campaign to expose this corporatist EMPIRE hiding in our kitchen of democracy. Here's why this battle of 'contested concepts' against the corporatist Empire WILL work: http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did... Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

News From Antiwar.com : Obama Reaffirms He Will Keep Israel's Nukes 'Secret'

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 16:22:06 +0000

OldVet73, actually it has been rumored by some media reporters that the last time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House, Obama started a little (SNL-style) joke with Bibi about the admission of Israel's nuclear weapons. When Netanyahu knocked on Oval Office door Obama asked, "Who's there?" And Bibi supplied the punch-line when he replied, "It's not the nuclear armed 'land-sharkl'" ---- and they both had a hell of a laugh!

News From Antiwar.com : Israel 'Deplores' IAEA Call to Join NPT

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 15:58:23 +0000

This facade reminds me of the famous SNL skit where the land-shark knocks on the door and the resident asks, "Who's there?", to which the SNL character dressed in the shark suit replies, "It's not the land-shark". Come to think of it, Israel is both nuclear armed --- and a 'land-shark'.

News From Antiwar.com : White House Insists Gen. McChrystal Endorses Review Process

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 15:50:22 +0000

The last arrogant General who recommended (and leaked PR to support) a land war in Asia wound-up as an "old soldier just fading away" --- when the President had the balls to fire him!

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Obama and the Graveyard of Empires

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 15:01:55 +0000

Excellent article --- the key of which is that Obama has not either accepted himself, nor certainly leveled with the American people, that America has metastasized into an EMPIRE itself --- and is clearly acting as an EMPIRE. In response to an article recently in Common Dreams by Eric Stoner titled, "Obama is no FDR, Much less Gandhi", I wrote the following regarding Obama's clear caving to the demands of this EMPIRE both domestically and with an 'empire-friendly' foreign policy of obvious imperialism: No FDR? Much less Gandhi? Hell, Obama is not even an LBJ. Obama is no JFK either. Instead, we've gone and got ourselves a full fledged corporate, finance capitalist, imperialist SOB. Obama was 'in the tank' for the ruling-elite corporate/financial EMPIRE, which fully controls our country behind the facade of their two-party, 'Vichy' sham of democracy --- 'from day one'. In reprising the role of Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire", Obama just said to the ruling Empire, "you had me at 'campaign money'". What an egotistical tool! I'd gladly eat a flying pig the day that Obama has the guts to even whisper the question, "shouldn't we be talking about this hidden Empire?" Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Iran: It's All About US

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:48:16 +0000

Justin, One of your best articles ever! You address the issue at hand, but also educate on a much broader and enduring truth which addresses the timeless conflict between democracy and Empire.

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Whence the Terror Hysteria?
Follow the Money

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 02:21:08 +0000

Philip, you are precisely correct. While the rag-tag little groups of anemic 'non-state actors' exist below the level of even mid-size nation-states, there is another, powerful, vicious and better disguised 'non-state actor' well above the level of even the most powerful nation-state, and that is the 'non-state actor' of the global ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' that controls our own country behind the facade of its owned two-party, 'Vichy' sham of democracy --- while attacking America, Americans, and the world. Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : War With Iran: Has It Already Begun?

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 01:52:22 +0000

Clearly, Justin, this is not the foreign policy of a democracy --- but of an EMPIRE. Americans must come to understand that our country is actually controlled by a global ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' hiding behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy. The candid, blunt, and continual use of the accurate term "EMPIRE" to describe this perversion of government, is (per George Lakoff's insight on cognitive science and linguistics) essential to informing the thinking of Americans on this reality. The language and the thinking informed by language is necessary to resolve the 'contested concept' of what democracy is and isn't. What we have here is EMPIRE --- which is anti-democratic at its very core. If the American people don't start having trusted sources informing them through candid language (ie. plain speaking) that this IS Empire, then they will have great difficulty understanding that their actions are valid in resisting, and confronting Empire --- for the American people will never revolt against what they believe is democracy. They must first be informed, through clear and unambiguous language, that what we have here is NOT democracy, but only disguised, 'Vichy' facade of false democracy imposed by EMPIRE --- just as the French clearly understood that the crude, first-generation, one-party 'Vichy' government was not a French Republic, but an imposed occupation by the Nazi EMPIRE. The battle to recapture our country from this Empire must be waged first in winning the 'language' and the 'minds' (not the hearts and the minds) of our own citizens. Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Don't Forget, Israel Is a Democracy

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 02:09:45 +0000

This new law would seem to quite explicitly have Israel admitting that it is overtly a 'Vichy' state, by its requirement that all call it a democracy, when, in fact, it is an Empire (expansionist, elitist, militarist, and all that normal empire stuff). What is ironic is that Israel essentially admits being a 'Vichy' state controlled by a thinly disguised Empire ---- while the U.S., which is the headquarters of the global ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' hidng behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy doesn't feel compelled to enact the same type of 'must call us a democracy' law.

News From Antiwar.com : Kashmir Separatist Slams Pakistani Taliban

Sun, 31 May 2009 15:29:28 +0000

"Geelani’s status as a high profile member of the Kashmiri separatist movement puts him in a unique position with Pakistan’s more conservative and Islamist factions, upon which the Taliban groups rely for support." Geelani seems to be caught in the same dilemma that Dr. Martin Luther King was between his 1967 Riverside Church speech "Beyond Vietnam --- A Time to Break Silence" and his assassination exactly one year later. The dilemma is how a religious and non-violence oriented leader confronts a violent empire which uses violence to control a people through fear. While the Taliban certainly represent a questionable non-state actor in any revolutionary cause, the Pakistani government represents a less traditional 'non-state actor' in the person of the U.S. headquartered 'corporate financial Empire' pushing violence for its own selfish and deceptive benefits --- regardless of the negative externality costs (death) to many ordinary Pakistanis. Geelani's outcome by rocking the boat between these two non-state actors could well be the same as King's --- if the Taliban don't get him first Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Setting a Higher Standard for Making War

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:26:22 +0000

Phillip, great article regarding the use of war by Empire to overcome democratic restraints. However, war is only one of the two major devices of Empire in overcoming superficially democratic Republics --- and in the case of the U.S. two shocks were required to finish the job: 9/15 (08) [the date when Lehman was pushed into bankruptcy to “ignite” this economic shock and collapse] was the 'second shoe dropping' of the 9/11 twin "Shock Doctrines" against the last vestiges of the American democratic Republic. 9/11 was 'Shock Doctrine' applied in a 'kinetic' attack. 9/15 was 'Shock Doctrine' applied in an 'economic' attack. The distinctly non-humorous irony is that even Hitler did not need two Reichstag fires to “ignite” and transmogrify the German Republic into the Nazi Empire. But now it can be clearly seen that it require two separate, but coordinated 'shock doctrine' attacks (one kinetic, and one economic) to push the U.S. from its previous decades of veiled control by the global ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire', that had been controlling our country behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy, into this overt control that we are now seeing with the Empire's overt domestic ‘looting’ of our country, and an overt expansion of a multiplicity of foreign ‘wars’ for oil territory through-out the Middle East and South Central Asia. Heck of a job, George and Barack! Only a massive, coordinated, and solidarity-based movement by the working-class of all effected countries can now arrest this march of global EMPIRE. Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

Antiwar.com Original Articles : Picking on AIPAC?

Tue, 19 May 2009 21:48:07 +0000

Phillip, a well argued article on all three points. However, I still believe that the number one reason that AIPAC should not have undue influence on this matter is, as I wrote to "The Nation" in 2007, that "AIPAC (the American Israel Political Action Committee) and others, which are together termed "the lobby," are not really speaking for the majority of Israelis nor American Jews--but are actually speaking nearly the opposite. I have long believed and written that the acronym AIPAC should rightly stand for American-style Imperialism Political Action Committee, since it does not reflect the honest desires and needs of the vast majority of the people of Israel but the aims of a global corporate Empire, which reduces the people of both Israel and America to living in its twin facades of "Vichy America" and "Vichy Israel." Yes, AIPAC accomplishes precisely the inverse of the noble purpose it claims to serve--to protect the people of Israel--and is instead a great danger to the people of Israel through its singular focus on the unsustainable and inevitably sorrowful strategy of militarist Empire. But AIPAC is neither the only nor the worst deceiver and denier of the aspirations of peoples whom it claims to speak for. That title of champion guileful misguider and destroyer of peoples'democratic purpose is the corporate global Empire, which has metastasized from an initial tumor in the United States itself (although it shows no nationalism nor patriotism) and which can best be described as the Empire behind the curtain of "Vichy America." Just as AIPAC disregards the real interests of the people of Israel in favor of its own agenda of militant imperialism, so the domestic-grown pathology of the US-centered corporatist Empire even more contemptuously and arrogantly disregards the democratic and peaceful interests of all Americans and displaces their dreams with its own sordid nightmare of global domination by force of arms and economic exploitation under the false flag of "Vichy America." At the end of the day, it needs to be understood that the global corporatist Empire which hides behind the facade of "Vichy America" is the heart of the destructive unitive Empire that "the lobby" lobbies." Since my 2007 criticism of AIPAC's undue and FALSE viewpoint in claiming to speak for any majority of Jews, I have further thought that from the humanist and empathetic 'democracy thinking' of the majority of Israeli and American working-class citizens, that "it’s hard to imagine, in this very modern 21st century, that we are still looking toward the end of the last of tribal ‘empire-thinking’. We are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-racial, even post-racial, sectarian, mixing-pot-world of democracies on a small fragile planet --- and yet, we are still not beyond the danger of existential death at the hands of ancient and irrelevant tribal ‘empire-thinking’. As only Kurt Vonnegut’s sense of ironic black humor might envision, “It is as if the whole human race was about to sit down to a celebratory picnic for successfully reaching our 21st century, when we are all unexpectedly killed by one remaining giant dinosaur.” The last people in the world who should want to stay in (or ever promote) a world of tribalism, are the Muslims and Jews ---- based on how they have been abused by various nationalist and other modern “-ist” Empires. Fighter pilots have a saying that, “speed is life”. But, for all the rest of us, “inclusiveness is life” --- and tribalism is death by the oldest lie of empire. Racism is another deadly old lie of empire, as is aggressively fundamentalist religion. Nationalism is a somewhat newer lie of empire, proving deadly in the 20th century. While, economic ideology is the newest, and current, lie of empire (which is causing our economic and environmental collapse). But all the lies and deceptions of “empire-thinking” lead ineluctably to the very same grave --- so choose your empire poison, stupidly. Or choose your inclusiveness, wisely. Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine