Reflections on Thailand: Detailed version, continued from original.
54 years ago, MLK Jr said “I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
Possibly you have justified America's proxy war in Ukraine, or the genocide rained down upon Palestinians with full cooperation of the American Empire. Perhaps you noticed that Biden sent a “defense” budget to Congress of 886 Billion dollars. Please be aware that the next countries to incur the wraith of the Empire are Iran and China. There will always be the next war until American citizens are united in attempting to stop the killing and madness.
I cannot keep the Empire from using my tax dollars to murder people around the world, but somehow I feel less responsible living in a country that is not at war and is not looking for an enemy to fight. But I am aware that, although I am on the other side of the world, the Empire has reigned down death and destruction in Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia. The Empire does have a negative effect on the government here in Thailand as the coup in 2014 was covertly supported by the CIA, for the purpose of encircling China. We are not immune.
For the past ten years at least, I could barely tolerate the flag worshiping at sporting events which is intended as a recruiting tool in order to convince young men that going to war in a far away place is honorable, while ignoring the plight of homeless vets. The home of the brave, now reigning down terror on the defenseless population of Palestine.
The plot of American movies and TV normally show David defeating Goliath. The hero always supports the oppressed not the oppressor. Yet the Zionist government in Israel has been the oppressor since 1947, becoming more violent towards them after imposing a siege 17 years ago, and bombing them indiscriminately 4 times in 17 years, not including the most recent continuing effort at ethnic cleansing after 10/7. Israel calls this massacres of a defenseless population “wars”. But they are not wars, they are massacres of a defenseless people.
Americans are lead to believe that the Palestinians, not the Israelis, scuttled several attempts at a two state solution. Israel has the propaganda tools, notable AIPAC, to convince you of that lie. Beyond the front page, the Israeli government has been clear that they financially support Hamas (3:20) in order to prevent a two state solution. There are many Israeli Zionist government officials saying as much, recorded for posterity on youtube, including Netanyahu. Most Israeli's hate the Netanyahu, but those in control are the MAGA-like Zionists.
Israel was ready with the story of 40 beheaded babies, which was not true and should not have been believed by anyone. Similarly, the baby baked in an oven was not true. The stories of rapes are at minimum highly exaggerated, and ignore systemic Israeli rapes of Palestinians over the past 17 years of open air imprisonment.
While the rest of the world lobbies for ceasefire, the American Empire supports Israel's genocide. And how could it be called anything else? Assume for a moment that Israel does identify a Hamas soldier among a crowd, does that justify dropping a bomb in the crowd to kill one man? If there is a tunnel under a hospital, does that justify bombing the hospital? What justifies attacks on schools, universities, ambulances, and journalists? The answer is that these are war crimes and should be prosecuted as such.
Lest I allow you decide I am going down the rabbit hole, I am going down the rabbit hole so I may as well define it. Here are the various marginalized reporters and organizations I am following :
Free Press; I remain the President of the Board of the Free Press, where I post articles daily.
Palestine: Caitlin Johnstone via Twitter, Vincent Ciccone via FB, Consortium News, Anti war dot com, Ramzy Baroud via the Free Press. Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate, Pepe Escobar, Jeremy Scahill and others on twitter.
Podcasts: Black Op Radio, JFK Facts (via substack), Racket News (Matt Taibbi, via substack) and That's Enough Outta You Also Rob Reiner and Soledad O'Brein on the JFK assassination.
Reading: Enough Already; Scott Horton;
The JFK Assassination Chokeholds by James DiEugenio, Matt Crumpton, Paul Bleau, Andrew Iler, Mark Adamcyzk
Burying the Lead: The Media and the JFK Assassination by Mal Jay Hyman
Mind Games: The Assassination of John Lennon by David Whelan
God, School, 9/11 And JFK: The Lies That Are Killing Us and The Truth That Sets Us Free, Bruce de Torres
TV: Al Jeezera English, BBC, Youtube. Born in Gaza, on Netflix.
Political Assassinations: Jefferson Morley's JFK facts (lots of content, daily emails, podcasts),
The podcast “Who Killed JFK” by Soledad O'Brein and Rob Reiner is already the highest rated Apple podcast ever. In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's tragic assassination, Rob Reiner teams up with Soledad O'Brien to tell the
JFK: What the Doctors Saw: Directed by Barbara Shearer. With Ronald C. Jones, Lawrence E. Klein, Joe D. Goldstrich, Kenneth Salyer. Startling medical observations about JFK's wounds when seven doctors who were in the Parkland Hospital ER reunite to discuss a day none of them can forget.
Four Died Trying is a feature documentary series that explores the extraordinary lives and calamitous deaths of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. For this, you can watch the trailer, and then a planned 20 episode series. Not funded so you have to pay but it is worth it.
Kennedy's and King, Black Op radio.
Excellent documentary: Four died Trying
JFK facts: Jefferson Morley's site, highly recommended.
Lots of content from the 60th anniversary events, Wecht conference in Pittsburgh and Lancer in Dallas.
MRNA vaccines. Steve Kirsch. The Kennedy Beacon. I admit this is mostly aspirational, as it takes a lot of time, but I find arguments against mRNA vaccines to be compelling.
And if anyone cares about my Thai lifestyle I get up in the morning, feed our cats, and access my email, post Free Press articles for the day (freepress.org), and often study language. This is time to call friends and family. Then we go to Fitness First in the mall at 10:30, where I work on physical therapy for my knee and ride the bike. Here I can watch NBA basketball and late NFL games on TV. Then we have lunch, and any business we may have, like buying groceries. The middle of the afternoon is downtime here because of the heat, so I read or listen to podcasts, play trickster euchre, or nap. Rujapa prepares dinner. We watch youtube or Netflex during dinner. Then I go back to my computer, doing what I like to do, until 9:30 or 10. Which involves educating myself by a combination of Substack, Podcasts, reading, and Twitter X, with trickster euchre when I need a break. This is also time for language study. Business calls to America have to wait until late evening (9 AM in Ohio).