I appreciate the interpretation of the word ‘terrorism’. You may recall the 43 year old mother of two, vaguely threatening some anonymous healthcare bureaucrat who was delaying and denying her claim. She ended the call invoking Luigi Mangione: “Delay! Deny! You could be next!” She was arrested by the FBI and charged with terrorism.
At the time, Gore Vidal wrote: “How can you declare War on Terrorism? It makes as much sense as declaring war on dandruff.”
A perfect example of how the term is misused legally. I'd forgotten Gore Vidal's observation until now, but it still makes as much sense now as it did then.
Personally, not taking any 'legal" definitions into account, as you have most excellently and definitively done, if I am killed by someone who hates me, who wants my belongings, who believes they have a good reason to murder me personally - that is murder. If I am killed merely because I belong to a class of people the killer is trying to eradicate or frighten into doing something, that is terrorism. IMO, if owners of Teslas, as a group, are frightened because some violence-choosing Dem wants to destroy their car or set fire to it (what if I am in it, or it is next to my home), that is terrorism.
Makes me laugh to remember how Dems scorned the folks who boycotted beer because of a picture on a beer can. And now the Dems are Cersei - "I choose violence". And, as is usual for Dems, anything they do, illegal or harmful or murderous child-killing or whatever, is quite okay if it furthers their goals. Scariest party on earth, really, because their tentacles are everywhere. And I bet that if an Israeli company owned Busch, anyone advocating boycotting Busch beer would have been labeled antisemitic and prosecuted. Maybe Musk needs to sell some stock to Zionists. My staunchly Dem friend advocates boycotting everything Musk owns, and I now am not sure if the prevailing Musk hatred will extend to vandalizing actual space rockets and killing astronauts. Shoot, if half a million dead Iraqi children were okay because Dem goals were reached, what's a few astronauts or car drivers or folks in a burning house.
Just my two cents, or one cent, it is early, on a nice Sunday morning. And, again IMO, no one running anything in the world cares what we think, they just dislike open disagreement and will squash that rather than change anything. Any token changes will be well after the intended harm is done. Hell, I still think Zelensky will nuke something in Russia and/or bomb nuclear plants. Trump's ego got the better of him here, that's for sure.
Perhaps nobody running in the world cares what we think, but it works both ways. I don't care what they think, either, only why, for that is how they can be defeated.
Like a pair of stained, ragged old underpants, the terms "terrorism" and "anti-antisemitism" have been so twisted and stretched to cover everything they have become meaningless. Remember how the highly detailed "Patriot" Act was passed within weeks of the 9/11 incidents, which tells you it had been written up and on the shelf at the CIA for years before, waiting for the right moment of panic and confusion to rush it into law.
Yes, and then the Democratic Party twisted and stretched their gerrymandering to push Kucinich out of Congress. The R&D duopoly is corrupt and evil from top to bottom and inside and out.
Lewis Powell was really one of the most evil influential actors in American history. The assassination of JFK was the coup and Powell's memo formalized the new corporate state structure and now, here we are -- Fascism!
Twenty-two years and two days after the invasion of Iraq - hadn't really realized it until I read your essay......Coincidentally, today I wore my twenty-two-year-old 'NO WAR' tee-shirt (compliments of ANSWER)....Reminds me of one of those kitchen magnets I used to have -War is Terrorism With a Bigger Budget'...Also coincidentally, I had been reading my Times Atlas of World History this morning. It turns out in the 9th century both Baghdad and Ch'an-en surpassed any of the cities (i.e. Charlemagne's Aix la Chapelle/Aachen) of the so-called western 'civilizations'.
I reckon that the first thing to be done when resisting 'terrorism' is to recognise the language of terrorism AND those employing it. It's clear to me that more often than not, those describing the actions of others as terrorism are the ones NOT to be listened to. I have been doing this for years; if I hear a public figure use terms like 'freedom', 'liberty', 'democracy' 'patriot' etc., my attention factor goes down to near zero. Over time, I have learned to skip tv personalities and 'experts' for much the same reason. I never have any time for people like Pier Morgan, etc and, its for the same reasons I seldom pay attention to what American politicians (and Israeli) say.
I agree that you should repeal your Patriot Act and if there is any target for your new DOGE then it must be your department of Homeland Security. But hey !! I'm an Australian and will never visit the US, ever !! Why ? the abiding memory of my first and only visit to the US in 2009, is the distasteful and sullen attitude of the first people to greet non-US people at the airport (LAX), these are the people who check your passport etc. On other occasions (such as a visit to the museum of Natural History in New York), the so-called 'security' were almost as obnoxious.
In my opinion, if you wanted to grow terrorism you would have foreign policies such as the US has; coupled with an overbearing 'security' infrastructure, coupled with an extremely weak education system that churns out citizens devoid of critical thinking.
Good points all, but it's not just foreigners DHS hassles. My wife and stepkids visited the Canadian side of the Niagara a few years ago, and they damned near arrested us just because we had different last names! It took I don't know how long, with me telling them I knew exactly where the local Federal Courthouse was and demanding names, before they let us through.
That and a stripsearch by TSA goons because I failed to extract my photo ID fast enough for them is why I no longer fly and see no need to get a passport--I'm afraid they would not let be back into my own country if I left because of my political opinions.
Exactly what I said at the time. The point of the War on Terrorism was to enhance the tools of Empire abroad, which inevitably become the tools of repression at home.
And the trick had been used before: The war on drugs, Communism, etc. replaced with Immigrants, Hamas, Houtis…We are not up to the fight if we keep taking the duopoly for incompetent idiots.
I appreciate the interpretation of the word ‘terrorism’. You may recall the 43 year old mother of two, vaguely threatening some anonymous healthcare bureaucrat who was delaying and denying her claim. She ended the call invoking Luigi Mangione: “Delay! Deny! You could be next!” She was arrested by the FBI and charged with terrorism.
At the time, Gore Vidal wrote: “How can you declare War on Terrorism? It makes as much sense as declaring war on dandruff.”
A perfect example of how the term is misused legally. I'd forgotten Gore Vidal's observation until now, but it still makes as much sense now as it did then.
Great feature. And thank you for respecting my 8th Amendment rights.
Personally, not taking any 'legal" definitions into account, as you have most excellently and definitively done, if I am killed by someone who hates me, who wants my belongings, who believes they have a good reason to murder me personally - that is murder. If I am killed merely because I belong to a class of people the killer is trying to eradicate or frighten into doing something, that is terrorism. IMO, if owners of Teslas, as a group, are frightened because some violence-choosing Dem wants to destroy their car or set fire to it (what if I am in it, or it is next to my home), that is terrorism.
Makes me laugh to remember how Dems scorned the folks who boycotted beer because of a picture on a beer can. And now the Dems are Cersei - "I choose violence". And, as is usual for Dems, anything they do, illegal or harmful or murderous child-killing or whatever, is quite okay if it furthers their goals. Scariest party on earth, really, because their tentacles are everywhere. And I bet that if an Israeli company owned Busch, anyone advocating boycotting Busch beer would have been labeled antisemitic and prosecuted. Maybe Musk needs to sell some stock to Zionists. My staunchly Dem friend advocates boycotting everything Musk owns, and I now am not sure if the prevailing Musk hatred will extend to vandalizing actual space rockets and killing astronauts. Shoot, if half a million dead Iraqi children were okay because Dem goals were reached, what's a few astronauts or car drivers or folks in a burning house.
Just my two cents, or one cent, it is early, on a nice Sunday morning. And, again IMO, no one running anything in the world cares what we think, they just dislike open disagreement and will squash that rather than change anything. Any token changes will be well after the intended harm is done. Hell, I still think Zelensky will nuke something in Russia and/or bomb nuclear plants. Trump's ego got the better of him here, that's for sure.
Perhaps nobody running in the world cares what we think, but it works both ways. I don't care what they think, either, only why, for that is how they can be defeated.
Like a pair of stained, ragged old underpants, the terms "terrorism" and "anti-antisemitism" have been so twisted and stretched to cover everything they have become meaningless. Remember how the highly detailed "Patriot" Act was passed within weeks of the 9/11 incidents, which tells you it had been written up and on the shelf at the CIA for years before, waiting for the right moment of panic and confusion to rush it into law.
The Patriot Act was described by the Powell Memo decades before, so yes, they had it ready and waiting. I think Dennis Kucinich said so at the time.
Yes, and then the Democratic Party twisted and stretched their gerrymandering to push Kucinich out of Congress. The R&D duopoly is corrupt and evil from top to bottom and inside and out.
Lewis Powell was really one of the most evil influential actors in American history. The assassination of JFK was the coup and Powell's memo formalized the new corporate state structure and now, here we are -- Fascism!
Twenty-two years and two days after the invasion of Iraq - hadn't really realized it until I read your essay......Coincidentally, today I wore my twenty-two-year-old 'NO WAR' tee-shirt (compliments of ANSWER)....Reminds me of one of those kitchen magnets I used to have -War is Terrorism With a Bigger Budget'...Also coincidentally, I had been reading my Times Atlas of World History this morning. It turns out in the 9th century both Baghdad and Ch'an-en surpassed any of the cities (i.e. Charlemagne's Aix la Chapelle/Aachen) of the so-called western 'civilizations'.
Baghdad, Seville, Cairo, all those Arab cities put European ones to shame for centuries.
I reckon that the first thing to be done when resisting 'terrorism' is to recognise the language of terrorism AND those employing it. It's clear to me that more often than not, those describing the actions of others as terrorism are the ones NOT to be listened to. I have been doing this for years; if I hear a public figure use terms like 'freedom', 'liberty', 'democracy' 'patriot' etc., my attention factor goes down to near zero. Over time, I have learned to skip tv personalities and 'experts' for much the same reason. I never have any time for people like Pier Morgan, etc and, its for the same reasons I seldom pay attention to what American politicians (and Israeli) say.
I agree that you should repeal your Patriot Act and if there is any target for your new DOGE then it must be your department of Homeland Security. But hey !! I'm an Australian and will never visit the US, ever !! Why ? the abiding memory of my first and only visit to the US in 2009, is the distasteful and sullen attitude of the first people to greet non-US people at the airport (LAX), these are the people who check your passport etc. On other occasions (such as a visit to the museum of Natural History in New York), the so-called 'security' were almost as obnoxious.
In my opinion, if you wanted to grow terrorism you would have foreign policies such as the US has; coupled with an overbearing 'security' infrastructure, coupled with an extremely weak education system that churns out citizens devoid of critical thinking.
Good points all, but it's not just foreigners DHS hassles. My wife and stepkids visited the Canadian side of the Niagara a few years ago, and they damned near arrested us just because we had different last names! It took I don't know how long, with me telling them I knew exactly where the local Federal Courthouse was and demanding names, before they let us through.
That and a stripsearch by TSA goons because I failed to extract my photo ID fast enough for them is why I no longer fly and see no need to get a passport--I'm afraid they would not let be back into my own country if I left because of my political opinions.
"...how can a nation wage war upon a tactic?"
Exactly what I said at the time. The point of the War on Terrorism was to enhance the tools of Empire abroad, which inevitably become the tools of repression at home.
And the trick had been used before: The war on drugs, Communism, etc. replaced with Immigrants, Hamas, Houtis…We are not up to the fight if we keep taking the duopoly for incompetent idiots.