Human Rights

Remember when coups and assassinations were secretive, when presidents were obliged to go to Congress and tell lies and ask permission for wars, when torture, spying, and lawless imprisonment were illicit, when re-writing laws with signing statements and shutting down legal cases by yelling "state secrets!" was abusive, and when the idea of a president going through a list of men, women, and children on Tuesdays to pick whom to have murdered would have been deemed an outrage?

On Wednesday, May 3 supporters of Palestine from across the state testified before the Ohio House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee in opposition to House Bill 476, bipartisan legislation that would prohibit state agencies from contracting with a companies or individuals who are boycotting Israel or divesting from Israel.

“We are opposed to HB 476 because it violates our free speech,” said Don Bryant from the Cleveland area, one of the 14 who testified. “To outlaw BDS is to outlaw a non-violent form of resistance against the oppression of the Palestinians.”

BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) is an economic strategy for pressuring Israel to end its occupation and colonization of Arab lands in Palestine, dismantle the Gaza Wall, and recognize full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.

No matter how long I debunk and refute and mock and condemn arguments for wars, I continue over and over again to conclude that I'm still giving advocates for war too much credit. How ever little I take seriously as rational ideas the notions that U.S. wars can be defensive or humanitarian or peace-keeping, it's always too much. Wars' supporters, in large part, do not themselves actually hold such beliefs. Rather they have a lust for war that must be examined outside of any question of utilitarian impact.

I'm referring here to the mental processes of both top officials deciding to wage war, and ordinary members of the U.S. public expressing their approval. Of course, the two are not identical. Motives of profit are hushed up, while phony motives such as waging wars in order to "support the troops" are manufactured for public consumption but never ever mentioned in the private emails of war makers. Nonetheless, there is great overlap in the thinking of all members of a culture, including the thinking of cynical politicians in a corrupt regime, and there are points on which virtually all politicians, from best to worst, agree without giving the matter any thought.

This country has made remarkable progress on civil rights over our history. We’ve moved from slavery to segregation to equal rights under the law. African-Americans have gained the right to vote, the right to equal employment opportunity. Open racism has become increasingly unacceptable. Gays and lesbians have progressed toward equal rights. Same-sex marriage is increasingly accepted in law and in practice.

Yet in the past years we’ve been presented with inescapable evidence of continuing systemic discrimination. Ferguson and many other abuses sparked the Black Lives Matter movement that exposed the systemic and too often deadly bias of our criminal justice system.

Liberals and conservatives alike have criticized mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders, disproportionately people of color.

The wealth gap between the races has increased dramatically, as African-Americans and Latinos were disproportionately targeted and victimized by the systemic fraud that led to the financial collapse.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The British artist who drew the "V For Vendetta"
graphic novel and movie character's white pointy-chinned face mask
which now disguises anti-government protesters, Anonymous hackers and
others worldwide, says concealing your identity in public can protect
against police torture and death squads.
   "I think what Edward Snowden is doing, and what Anonymous is doing,
they are doing what they think is a good thing," Mr. Lloyd said in an
interview during a March 22 to March 29 exhibition of his work at
Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University.
   "The V mask itself? It's good to have a symbol that unifies. So if
you're wearing something as a mask that unifies and actually says
something -- says what you are doing, and is in sympathy with some
sort of concept -- that's good because it's a unification.
   "But any mask is quite acceptable. Everybody has the right to go
out on the street as an individual citizen, masked or otherwise, to
protest.
   "Your identity is not important. The fact that you are there as a

Do you think that ending human violence is impossible? Do you believe that even aiming to do so is unrealistic? Well, you might be right. But you might also be interested to know that there are a lot of people around the world who are committed to trying. And, if you think the aim is worthwhile, you could be one of them.

The most casual perusal of the media will confirm what most of us suspect: violence takes many forms and it is absolutely pervasive. But what the media might not report regularly is that there are some phenomenal people and organizations out there that are doing everything they can to tackle one or more aspects of this violence. And as they identify themselves as part of one or more worldwide networks working on violence, they acquire a fuller appreciation of what is being achieved.

The following quotes (except as noted) are from: https://newrepublic.com/article/120559/honduras-charter-cities-spearheaded-us-conservatives-libertarians

“In the early 1950s the United Fruit Company hired legendary public relations expert Edward Bernays to carry out an intense misinformation campaign portraying then-Guatamalan president Jacobo Arbenz as a communist threat.” -- Scott Price, IC Magazine

A new film narrated by Roger Waters, The Occupation of the American Mind , traces the rise of Israeli war propaganda in the United States. This propaganda, which has skillfully swayed U.S. public opinion in support of Israeli wars and occupations, has in fact been not so much a matter of skill as a matter of control.

The following quotes (except as noted) are from: https://newrepublic.com/article/120559/honduras-charter-cities-spearheaded-us-conservatives-libertarians

“In the early 1950s the United Fruit Company hired legendary public relations expert Edward Bernays to carry out an intense misinformation campaign portraying then-Guatamalan president Jacobo Arbenz as a communist threat.” -- Scott Price, IC Magazine

If you have ever wondered why the global elite hoards their wealth instead of using it to help break down the violence and injustice in our world, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred.

If you have ever wondered why weapons manufacturers make weapons to kill other living beings and destroy the Earth, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred.

If you have ever wondered why politicians serve elite interests, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred.

If you have ever wondered why a parent is violent towards their own child, I would like to suggest an answer to your question: self-hatred.

The explanation for violent and exploitative behaviors always includes self-hatred. Let me explain why.

Conscious self-hatred is an intensely unpleasant feeling to experience and, consequently, people who feel self-hatred learn to fearfully and deeply suppress their awareness of it when they are very young. Having learned to do this, subsequent opportunities for this self-hatred to be felt are progressively more easily suppressed.