The State Of The Union: Existential Crisis

The State Of The Union: Existential Crisis

by Davis Fleetwood
find me on facebook, AlterNet,  twitter, itunes, BlipTV, youtube, myspace,

While there were so very many things about last nights state of the Union address that inspired within me the urge to end the suspense already and just take a flying leap off of a cliff, let’s start with something positive shall we?

Obama said:

“With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.”

Yes! As I have said previously, the recent Supreme Court decision will make it more likely that people will chose to piss into a gale force wind rather than vote.

Then he hedged:

“I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I’d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.”

Some of the problems?

In the vast wasteland of problems embedded in our current system, a mountain of corruption only topped off with the cherry that is the recent Supreme Court ruling, you have thrown down the gauntlet and suggested a bill be created to address some of the these problems? This is just the type of mealy-mouthed mediocrity that assumes, correctly I believe (although we can argue about which is the chicken and which the egg) our society’s collective masochism, our existential dilemma, our manically depressed desperation that screams- this is the best our humanity has to offer?

It just this kind of rhetoric that inspired Howard Zinn (who, faced with the prospect of watching Obama’s State of the Union last night dropped dead of a heart attack) to quip: “If the gods had intended for people to vote, they would have given us candidates”

But, as any President faced with rapidly deteriorating approval ratings and the accompanying diminished influence over the silver spoon yahoos parading around the marble halls of the House will tell you, it’s the economy stupid.

Obama acknowledged this by saying:

“Families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same. We are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. “

Of course, there are exemptions to this. The Pentagon, fierce adherents to the philosophy that the best defense is a good offense, will continue to see its budget increase. While Obama promised not to turn his back on the uninsured in America. What then do you call spending more than 50% of the overall Federal budget on the military, whose primary function it seems, is to uphold, through the application of unilaterally applied lethal force, the American Dream, as articulated by the President last night, “I will not accept second place for the United States of America!”
Afterwards Chris Matthews said that watching the state of the Union he forgot Barack Obama was black. And that this was a major accomplishment of his presidency- the ushering in of a post racial society.

You’ll excuse me if I withhold my applause until we elect a president who can usher in a post Imperialist society, one with the Charlie Browns or a va jay jay (this is a post women’s movement society) to usher in single payer, slash military and defense spending and do something, anything, to steer us out of the path of our Christian Nations self fulfilling prophetic date with Armageddon.

Below the Break: Chris Matthews up past bedtime – forgot Obama ‘was Black tonight for an hour’, + full text of State of the Union

Underwater Mortgage? Walk Away!

by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

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It is the American dream: get married, have children and own a home. Indirectly, one can make the argument that that dream, and the corporately sponsored accoutrements that come with it, are killing us all. But for nearly 1 in 4 homeowners who are “underwater”, owing more on their mortgages then their homes are worth, the dream turned nightmare is quite literally strangling them.

Let me help you with the solution: Stop paying your mortgage. Stop right now.

Listen: Even if you can afford the monthly note, if your mortgage is higher than your home value, stop paying your mortgage now. Default. Take the money that you would have been giving the big bank and deposit it in a locally owned bank or credit union. Wait as long as you can – you will have about one year- before you are evicted, then go rent somewhere.

Moral qualms? Get over it. Under Obama administration directives, counselors at the US department of Housing and Urban Development urge homeowners to follow the “responsible course” and pay their mortgage. This same administration is eager to give bailout money to companies like Morgan Stanley, who recently stopped making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. Morgan Stanley is able to pay back the TARP funds precisely because it makes cold business calculations and walks away from “obligations” when they are no longer financially profitable.

Real Estate developers do this all the time. Just this week, the owner of New York City’s Stuyvesant Town complex made a sound business decision: he stopped paying the $3 billion mortgage on his little square on the monopoly board.

Big Banking, the status quo, your government all have a great deal invested in you hanging on to your mortgage, honoring your commitment, and living the dream. The machine serves them. The wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round, making regular deposits for the wealthiest of the wealthy who constantly adjust the vise on your neck. It is not just underwater homeowners, but all of our relationship to this dream is akin to the ten dollar whore to her pimp, or a battered wife to her abusive husband.

I’m here to tell you honey: you don’t have to take it anymore. You can dream bigger. You can dream different. You are better than that.

If you are an underwater homeowner. Stop paying your mortgage now. If you know someone who is underwater, share this video with them and support them in their decision to walk away from their mortgages.

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The Supreme Court Renders Voting Obsolete

The Supreme Court Renders Voting Obsolete
by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com
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Corporations have been running the country for decades, now. The recent Supreme Court ruling just makes it easier, more transparent.  Now that voting is- temporarily anyway – obsolete, we can focus on more constructive activities.

“Starting today,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the dissenting opinion of the already infamous Citizens United v. the FEC, – an opinion, by the by that sometimes read like a suicide note, that “corporations with large war chests to deploy on electioneering may find democratically elected bodies becoming much more attuned to their interests.”

Understatement, they name is John Paul Stevens!

Corporations will find democratically elected bodies much more attuned to their interests? That is like saying to the residents of Hiroshima: this is just going to hurt a little bit.

Pledge Allegiance to the Flag

Consider that, in the year of hope and change, 2008, when more people where personally and financially invested in the electoral process in some way, the top 100 American corporations had 600 billion dollars in profits. If those companies divert only 1% of their profits in the next election any future election cycle, that equals 6 billion dollars, which equates to double the electoral spending of Obama. McCain and every candidate for house and senate combined.

Given this reality, will people still vote in 2012? 2016? Contribute a hundred bucks to a campaign?

One must dig to the conclusion of the dissenting opinion of Justice Stevens to absorb the impact of that the Supreme Court just did:

“The Court’s approach to the First Amendment…  will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress, and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.”

If you are An American Citizen without access to a fortune 100 companies treasury, you are currently being raped.

So what to do?

First of all, when talking to friends and family or writing letters to the editor on this issue, do not mix metaphor’s or employ hyperbolic statements such as “If you are An American Citizen without access to a fortune 100 companies treasury, you are currently being raped.”

I am a trained stunt driver on a closed course and you should not attempt this in public. While it is a happy accident in art that lies often tell a greater truth, hyperbole around the Sunday dinner table will only get you taken off the guest list for next years Secret Santa.

So, you should put down the brick you were about to throw through a Starbucks window (but save it, one never knows when one will need it) and visit FreeSpeechForpeople.org Educate yourself. Then sign the petition.

Share it with everyone you know.

Just do it.

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

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Find Davis Fleetwood on facebook, itunes, twitter, BlipTV, youtube, myspace,

Also. read Davis’ daily column, THIS DAY IN THE USA
contact (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

Conan’s Last Show on NBC

Conan’s Last Show on NBC
by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com
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The Supreme Court ripped the rug out from under the electoral process, the death toll in Haiti is at 70 thousand and climbing, but what really captures our attention is the late night civil war over at NBC between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

Given that the whole goal of late night television is the exact same goal as programming on the home shopping network, I have always admired the latter for their honest and direct approach to create a need where none existed and separate my money from my wallet.

But even I had could not resist the civil war that has waged over the Late Show. Like any right minded individual I was in Conan O’Brien’s corner. I was, as they say, with Coco.

Now Coco has a 33 million dollar golden parachute, with another 12 million being paid out by NBC as severance to his staff of 200.

And filed under the category of this could only be funny in America to Americans, we have the vindictive childish tantrum, serving as Conan’s final shows for NBC.

On Wednesday night, Conan smiled cheeky and waved during a one-minute bit wherein he displayed a purchased sports car while the Rolling Stones blared in the background.

In Conan’s own words: comedic value, zero. What this 60 seconds cost NBC: $ 1.5 Million. On Thursday, he outdid himself: a mink coat covering a former Kentucky Derby winning horse watching rights restricted archival NFL football coverage. Cost: 4.8 Million dollars.

Even as reports surface that those bits did not costs as much as Conan has boasted, the fact that we laugh and cheer for this underdog- this underdog who was paid 33 million to stop working during a time when millions Americans are loosing their jobs and the supreme court just made individual Americans participation in the democratic process obsolete- I mean our grandkids will want to hear us tell stories about “when” people voted – shouldn’t Conan have to do more to earn his status as underdog hero.

Again, what about paying the 50 hottest FHM girls, fly them down to Haiti and have them perform sex acts on survivors while that pants on the ground guy sings his song as a duet with Lady Gaga  in the background. Then you can sell the sex tapes with all funds going to Haiti survivors.

Talk about a viral bit of uplifting entertainment.

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

Click here to Donate.

Find Davis Fleetwood on facebook, itunes, twitter, BlipTV, youtube, myspace,

Also. read Davis’ daily column, THIS DAY IN THE USA
contact (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

“41″ OR; Scarlett Johansson & Megan Fox Will Never Sleep With You. Tiger Woods? Maybe.

Scarlett Johansson & Megan Fox Will Never Sleep With You. Tiger Woods? Maybe.
by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com
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Lets face it, a few weeks ago Scott Brown’s chances of winning were about as high as my being invited to an orgy with Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox, and Tiger Woods. But then again, politics makes for strange bedfellows.

A unremorseful truck owner auctioning off his daughter’s defeats a mealy-mouthed walking apology.  A cipher looses to a tea bagger. In other words, the quintessence of the democratic party and the republican party square off to decide who will be the heir to Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat and I – a both a resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and of the Imperial Empire of The United States of America am supposed to be upset when Martha Coakley can’t go to Washington and deliver the big fat windfall for health care insurance companies masquerading health care reform?

This is what we’ve come to?

Try to digest this daily dose of irony folding back in on itself: insiders in the Republican Party are quietly disappointed that Brown won. Why? Because, according to the astute analysis laid out before the special election by former West Wing staffer Lawrence O’Donnell:

Scott Brown will destroy the Democrats’ plan to pass health care reform. But he will also destroy the Republicans’ not-so-secret plan to pass health care reform.

O’Donnell explains that while the Republicans tried to look obstructionist to the media and tea baggers and closet white supremacists everywhere, Republican leader Mitch McConnell entered a unanimous consent agreement with Harry Reid about how to proceed on the health care bill. meaning in essence, that it was going to make it impossible for Republicans to amend the bill and would put it on a fast track toward passage.

I repeat – the Republican put the bill on a fast track towards passage.

And why not? What we now call Obama care looks a helleva a lot like the plan we have in Massachusetts, instituted by a Republican Governor during a time when, you guessed it, Scott Brown was a State Senator. Mandating coverage is not a liberal idea; it is a boon to Wall Street portfolios brimming with health care insurance stocks.

The GOP’s plan, hatched at a time when Scott Brown was in fact the snowball and the reality you live in was in fact hell, was to pass the ObamaCare bill and then use “repeal it, repeal it!” as the rally cry for the 2010 midterm elections.

In other words, something was actually going to get done in Washington, but it was not what the Democrats wanted. Nor was it what the Republicans wanted; something was gong to get done in Washington, for once on a way, precisely because no one wanted it to happen.

When you people finally wake up and realize it is all a game, the even the very astute writer cited in this video,

Are you beginning to understand that you never win at 3 card Monty. And when the Ace of diamonds doesn’t come up, after you have studied the cards again and again just to plunk down your $100 and you lose, only to realize that everyone around you, the dealer, the high rollers, the winners, the losers, that the Lawrence O’Donnell I cite earlier in this piece was not a staffer in The White House’s West Wing, but on NBC’s West Wing, what do you do? That everyone is in on the shell game, everyone but you- and the game is breaking up, and all the actors are scattering in different directions. Who do you chase?

Commiserate with Keith Olberman? Or Google pictures of Scarlet Johansson and Megan Fox?

No really, what do you do?

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

Click here to Donate.

Find Davis Fleetwood on facebook, itunes, twitter, BlipTV, youtube, myspace,

Also. read Davis’ daily column, THIS DAY IN THE USA
contact (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

Obama’s First Year in Office: Most Effective President Ever

Obama’s First Year in Office: Most Effective President Ever
by Davis Fleetwood (e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com
find me on facebook, twitter, itunes, BlipTV, youtube, myspace

Lately the talking heads on left and the right seem to actually agree on something, the assessment of Obama as summarized in a recent Newsweek feature titled, ”Yes He Can (But He Sure Hasn’t Yet). “ I’m here to tell you they are wrong. Judged on the lemonade he is making out of the lemons left to him, Obama can clearly claim the title, Most Effective President Ever.

Let us look at Obama’s accomplishments in the arena of foreign policy.  Remember, it was MLK who said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” A citizenry with spirits intact may actually play their part in this Constitutional Republic and hold their elected officials accountable. So crushing our spirits becomes a central requirement of the President, whose very job, in an ornamental role not dissimilar to that of a present day British Monarch’s, is paving the way for the expansion of the American Empire as first articulated with the concept of Manifest Destiny and made profitable with the establishment of the military industrial complex.

Obama, 1 year in. What grade do you give him?

Consider the famous campaign promise made by Obama on the campaign trail:

“I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.”

And juxtapose that with the reality that more soldiers in the Afghanistan and Iraq today are there on order from commander in chief Obama that Bush. This is Obama’s war.

If that doesn’t break your spirit, consider the Orwellian horror show of our current President accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with a speech that makes the case for war.

A stroke of genius from the most effective president ever. With the spirits of citizens crushed to the point that they will not hold their elected officials accountable, the process of Imperial expansion across the globe gets exponentially expedited.

Now let us quickly look at domestic policy, and the big hot button topic: health care reform. Consider what Obama said before he was elected:

To achieve health care reform, “I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies — they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.”

Once in office, Obama did not deliver on this template for reform. The Obama insurance reform was negotiated in closed sessions with insurers and drug companies. This strategy made it impossible to bargain effectively for lower drug costs or debate the merits of a true public option: single payer healthcare.

Instead, healthcare reform in it current form has Wall Street ecstatic. It has liberals fighting with democrats, Democrats agreeing with Republicans, all playing out on infotainment channels, creating enough white noise that we have hardly notices the transition that Obama has undergone: from candidate Obama, a fighter for regular Americans, to President Obama an inside dealer with insurance lobbyists and bankers.

This smooth, and nearly invisible, transition has helped the United States of America stay the course at home and abroad: with American Imperialism expanding, and huge 8 figure bonuses being handed out on wall street again Barack Obama clearly deserves the title of Most Effective President Ever.

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THE HERMIT WITH DAVIS FLEETWOOD is a satiric look at the top headlines, current events, and political trends. The show is Independently produced by a staff of one & runs on the fuel of your individual donations.

Click here to Donate.

Find Davis Fleetwood on facebook, itunes, twitter, BlipTV, youtube, myspace,

Also. read Davis’ daily column, THIS DAY IN THE USA
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This Day In The USA ♦ January 15 ♦ Super Bowl Sunday!

War, Beer, Capitalism and Nationalism: Super Bowl Sunday
by Davis Fleetwood
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(e) NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

Good morning scholars, the question for your consideration today is: Are you Ready for some football?

Preparing us for war, or just an excuse to drink beer?

The day after the hippies and yippies staged their fist “be-in” in San Francisco, American style capitalism fought back hard against that affront to middle class values.

On this day in the USA, January 15, 1967 the NFL staged their first Super Bowl.

America’s game started just as America did, with a group of all- American boys crushing the Chiefs from Kansas City. Of course the genocide was only symbolic in football, no American Indians were actually killed on the gridiron. Vince Lombadi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, victors in Super Bowls I&II, was the spitting image of General Lemay, the US Airforce general and notorius war criminal who devised and implemented the carpet bombing stategy of world war 2. Like LeMay, Lomardi belived that “Winning isn’t everything. It is the only thing.”

God bless America. We sure need it.

In a remarkably short time, the Super Bowl has established itself as the most commonly shared American tradition. It is America’s game. With over 140 million Americans expected to tune in at some point during the day; that is nearly half the population and more than the amount of Americans who voted in the 2008 Presidential election.

Super Bowl Sunday is about Americans coming together to share a communal experience unmatched in our contemporary culture.

And it is about beer.

It is about worshipping our modern day gladiators and immortalizing them with hawkish references and war-like imagery in a game that is no so subtle in its glorification of wars past and indoctrination of wars to come. Here is a fun drinking game: have a sip of beer every time the announcers say “shotgun” or “aerial attack” or “bombs, blitzes, or heroes.” And tell me if you can make it to halftime without being rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoining.

More than war and more than even beer, the Super Bowl is about moving product.

Ad 30-second advertisement during the game costs an average of 2.5 million dollars. I’ll say that again. 2.5 million dollars. 30 seconds. And it is the ads that oftentimes provide the bulk of the entertainment, for in this high stakes war (I’m referring to the game) the outcome is often settled by halftime, with one side able to confidently declare mission accomplished well before the fighting is done.

Die hard fans of the highly paid mercenaries on opposing sides of the field idolize the players not for the content of their character, but for the color of their uniforms. We call that nationalism lite.

So the Super Bowl is about war, beer, capitalism and nationalism.

But the question still remains …. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

I’m Davis Fleetwood reminding you that history is based on actual events.

Haiti’s Deal With The Devil

Haiti’s Deal With The Devil
by Davis Fleetwood      NoCureForThat {at} gmail {dot} com

You all know by now (and if you don’t, I’ve included the video at the bottom of this post) that Pat Robertson called the earthquake in Haiti a blessing in disguise, and indicated further that they were a poor nation because they had made a pact with the devil. In the immortal words of the very mortal George Carlin: will someone please stick a dick in that guys mouth?

According to Pat Robertson, tectonic plates shifted under Port Au Prince causing the most violent earthquake there in 200 years because Haitians had made a deal with the deal with the devil because “they were under the heal of the French, you know Napoleon the 3^rd, or whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you get us free from the French. True story. And so the devil said okay it’s a deal.”

Christ on a fucking crutch, it would be easy to dismiss Robertson if Satan himself did not just issue a press release saying:   “No, really, will someone stick a dick in that guys mouth! I mean take the swollen head of your penis and smack his fucking Uvula around until it drips the blood of fucking Christ! And do it while sitting on his face backwards so that your anal juice drips in his eyes. First person to do this to Robertson wins immortality.”

No, I kid. The Devil does not issue press releases. I just made that up.

But Pat Robertson has got a point. Look at the United States. We didn’t make a deal with the devil. We made a deal with the almighty God. And because of that deal the reaction to the ongoing devastation that is the man made disaster in Iraq (over 1 million innocent civilians dead) does not inspire celebrities to twitter donation pitches so that the Red Cross can take care of the Iraqi people). Hell, our nation was founded on genocide, but since we didn’t make a deal with the devil, this is taught in schools under the catchy phrase “manifest destiny”.

Look. Don’t get me wrong. We will give. We should give. You should give. I’m giving. I want you to know that I am opening up my very shallow wallet and I am giving what I can. That said, I will be matching my donation to the Red Cross so that they may help in Haiti with a donation to War Child: an international charity that protects children living in the worlds most dangerous war zones.

I suggest you do the same.

Wouldn’t you agree Pat Robertson? Helping the Haitians and the Iraqis and Afghanis sounds like a good idea doesn’t it?

What, I can’t hear you, is something stuck in your throat?

Here is PAT, droppin knowledge, Christian style:

A Gathering of Tribes for a Human Be –In ♦ This Day In The USA ♦ January 14

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A Gathering of Tribes for a Human Be –In ♦ This Day In The USA ♦ January 14
by Davis Fleetwood     NoCureForThat {at) gmail {dot} com

Good morning scholars. Question for discussion today:

How did U.S. citizens reach a point in our history where communal living, free love, and LSD inspired higher consciousness – a Dionysian festival of life – had a legit chance to supplant the Leave it to Beaver lifestyle?

Bridging the beat and the hippie movements was the Human Be- In, taking place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on this day in the USA January 14 1967.

So listen up: black skinny ties and pomade, 8 cylinder beasts with tailfins and stay at home moms with warm dinner on the table just in time for the Dad’s 5:45 train even though he is going to take a bite and disappear behind the evening paper before moving to his arm chair – don’t sit in daddy’ chair- and numb himself to sleep with Jack Parr and cheap scotch and god dammit kids do your homework just to wake up and drag himself to the commuter rail for the 7:52 and replicate that over and over again like that overhead shot at the start of the film American beauty or even slumdog millionaire- different country but it is just as apropos – try and grasp the vast migration of the middle class to the suburbs, this was the middle class expansion and morality at the mid point of the 20^th century. Can we agree on that? At the very least?

OK. Good.

In direct opposition to these middle class values & morality sprung the beat poets, the yippies and the hippies, who collective staged, as a prelude to the opus that was to be the summer of love “ A Gathering of Tribes for a Human Be –In” on January 14, 1967.

The “Be- In” included appearances by Dick Gregory, Timothy Leary, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, your great aunt Sarah, Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Rubin, scores of beautiful women with hairy armpits, the hells angels, anti-war activists, scholars, poets, your cousin Vinnie, musicians, artists, Ram Das, and free LSD for everyone…. The Be-In was an attempt to create a decentralized, non-hierarchical society in direct opposition to the destructive force of the US brand of military dominance and predatory capitalism embedded in middle class morality.

Ask yourself scholars: What would the world look like today if the hippies and yippies and poets and thinkers actually won?

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Abu Ghraib Prison Abuses Reported By Whistleblower, Joseph Darby ♦ This Day In The USA ♦ January 13

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Abu Ghraib Prison Abuses Reported By Whistleblower, Joseph Darby
by Davis Fleetwood

Are you obedient?

Good morning scholars. The answer you give to the question for today will most likely be a lie, but the year is long, and our experiment only beginning.

Before talking about Joseph Darby, the U.S. soldier at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, who reported U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners to the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division immortalizing those horrific photos, we should consider the work of Stanley Milgram.

A Yale professor, now deceased, who is most famous for his study measuring the willingness of participants to perform acts as instructed by an authority figure when those acts went against their conscience. With a vanity commonly accepted in the scientific community, this landmark study was called the Milgram experiment.

You remember this from school, yes? Participants were told they were taking part in a study about learning. When a subject got a question wrong, a man in a white lab coat and brandishing a clipboard (played by an actor) would instruct the subject (who was told he was the “teacher” in this experiment on learning) to electrocute the “learner” (also played by an actor). 37 out of 40 “teachers”  (subjects of the experiment, obediently delivered what they believed to be electric shocks of up to 450 volts to their unseen (but often heard, screaming victim). Some subjects paused at 135 volts, but when assured that they would not be held responsible, they continued on.

They obeyed the authority figure. The man in the white lab coat.

Joseph Darby, a U.S. Army specialist punching a clock at a low risk prison- that is a prison in Iraq, that, according to the internal US ARMY investigation reports admittedly did not contain any terror suspects, asked a colleague for some photos of Iraq to email home. The college gave him a CD of photos, perhaps forgetting that on that CD, along with Iraq sunsets and tourist attractions, there existed photos depicting US servicemen and women torturing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners.

If Darby were in the 37 out of 40, he would have done nothing. Everything he was trained for, and according to the Milgram study, everything in human nature itself was working against what Darby did next.

On this day in the USA, January 13, 2004 slipped the CD in an envelope with an anonymous note to the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Soon thereafter, as the photos went public, Darby was having lunch in the mess hall, watching Donald Rumsfeld testify before Congress about Abu Ghraib, when Rumsfeld said:  “And we should mention that as well, 1st Specialist Joseph Darby, who alerted the appropriate authorities that abuses were occurring.”

Rumsfeld, living in a world where Milgram’s findings were the rule, was well aware that outing Darby equated putting Darby’s life in danger, and keep others from coming forward. In other words, Rumsfeld was just doing his job.

Anonymous no more, Darby’s family was moved into Federal protective housing, a prudent measure given the velocity and frequency of the death threats they were receiving.

Darby was given a JFK Profile in Courage award from Caroline and Ted Kennedy.

But they killed Kennedy.

Scholars, if today’s lesson proves anything, perhaps it is this:

Trying to change the world “one person at a time” is time wasted.

What we need to do is replace the man in the white lab coat.

I’m Davis Fleetwood reminding you that history is based on actual events.

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