Common Sense

The front page of todays NYtimes reads: "Pentagon aims to shift inmates from military base".
I wrote about this situation coming up earlier; as I'm sure many also expected this outcome. The reason inmates were put on the Gitmo base in the first place was that the executive branch of the United States federal government wanted to imprison "Terror suspects"(translation: Muslims) OUTSIDE of the jurisdiction of the US federal court system.

The Supreme court did not fall for it and actually decided something right, despite Scalia and Rehnquist still being on the bench. They said that these individual had to get a trial or be released. The conservative media went crazy talking about how this would release terrorists in to the wild and bedlam would pervade. The truth of the matter is if they don't have enough evidence to go to trial on, then the person is most likely not a terrorist. Just like you and I(The average US citizen) we cannot just BE imprisoned, there must be evidence presented at a trial and heard by an objective(in a perfect world haha) judge and jury. That is the standard I feel comfortable with, and NO these individuals are not US citizens, so by law they didn't have the same rights. After that supreme court case though, the precedent has been set, if we take control of a bunch of people that are not POWs(or the bullshit legal fiction they tried to create "enemy combatants") they need a trial. The constitution says PEOPLE not CITIZENS.

But that's in the past what I had surmised is that the executive branch would drag their feet on the Gitmo detainees. It turns out they found an even better solution. This way they will be 100% sure that the federal court system will not ensure that these HUMANS have HUMAN RIGHTS. They are exporting them to Saudi Arabia and other countries, where they will undoubtedly be tortured. Not only that but the CIA will probably still have access to them so that the US can keep torturing(its hard to quit cold turkey).

The thing that pisses me off is the fact that they are getting away with it. They first put them in Cuba because they thought that the courts couldn't reach them, but federal sovereignty by pure COMMON SENSE(and stare decises) extends to military bases, territories, provinces, native reservations, and embassies. So after the exec is shut down by the supreme court here is the plan:
1. Wait for the PR to cool down, it only takes about a month or two for people to forget whatever was the hot media topic(prisoner torture, tsunami, bush's draft dodging, etc).
2. Slowly at first start moving prisoners to other countries that have close operational relationships with our military and intelligence apparatuses.
3. The mass exodus, move everyone that would get released for lack of evidence to these other countries(like Saudi Arabia). Because of number 2 it will look like the precedent has already been set and because of number 1 your average American will not make the connection between this movement and the court decision.
4. Keep the people you have evidence on in Gitmo give them trials and in foreign countries continue to torture other individuals that are most likely peaceful civilians(because if they weren't the evidence would be there to go to trial on).

So years from now if they start sending American citizens to Saudi Arabia for interrogation by US corporations specializing in torture(like Titan Corp. In Abu Ghraib), we will know how the precedent got set.
What to do now? I don't know
Dissent is now treason and individuals who exercise their right to peaceably assemble are quickly gassed and jailed.
So I end with one of my favorite quotes that I have put up in this blog before, but it still never gets old.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, only make violent revolution inevitable" -JFK

-Jimothy J. Jones-

Pre-cog

By looking at patterns in the past we can come up with a good prediction of what the future holds. For example we could look at our own revolution, Algeria, and Vietnam; to understand that the occupation of Iraq was destined to evoke violent resistance, that would eventually topple the Americans controlling the country.

1. The United States will go to war with Iran, but by proxy. The US will support either Israel or Europe in intervention with Iran. Most likely under the guise of a hunt for WMD.

2. Roe V. Wade will be overturned. With newly appointed neo-con supreme court justices on the way. As well as the case recently in Illinois Federal court where the judge stated unequivocally that "life begins at conception, for the Illinois legislature". The facists in power owe all they have to the christian right for conditioning enough people with the meme that the GOP are followers of Jesus' teachings. Without that bullshit a Republican will never win a national race.

3. Systems of social control created/perpetuated by the media will only grow stronger. The events of 9/11 had an impact that very few discuss, but we can be sure it is being discussed in the executive branch. The murder of the people at the WTC and Pentagon made the entire US population one easy to appeal to demographic. Also what makes the demographic even EASIER to appeal to is the fear, fear can get reasonable people to do very unreasonable things. So marketing which we already understand is an effort at mind control(to a degree) will become more invasive and effective. The era of terror will not end soon, becuase it is very profitable to keep it around.

4.The patriot act will be either destroyed or expanded through passage of the patriot II. The law that essentially eroded the civil rights that had been afforded to us since 1776, will either see an expansion of totalitarianism, or a return to democratic priniciples.

5. If any strong left-wing leaders appear in the near future there will be an assasination. Either character assasination or bullets in the head assasination. This period is so important transformatively that it cannot be allowed for a sensible citizen leader(ex. MLK) to bring truth and compassion in to the equation. This assasination will most likely be done after the orginization supporting the individual is formed. Therefore when the person is killed the orgnization will collapse, and weaken the entire social movement hopefully crippling it. The only variable in the equation is how powerful the truth the person speaks and how charismatic the speaker. If too powerful and too charismatic, then the option of using the massive propaganda machine(the media) to slander the individual is not an option anymore.

Just throwin out some predictions, obviously fate doesn't exist, I just wanna see if I can ge a few right.
-Jimothy J. Jones