‘The US is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today’: MLK, Jr. 1967

Were he alive today, how sad and sick he would be to know that it’s still true 50+ years later, and that the Empire hadn’t heeded his visionary warnings.  But of course, his socialist, radical warnings were what got him assassinated, weren’t they?  That the amerikan military budget is now close to a trillion dollars, and that this President has even upped the ante on Obama’ Nuclear Posture, according to leaked documents on the DoD’s draft means the hegemonic impulses of the Empire are more frantic than ever, which many radical leftists believe  indicates an Empire in its final throes.

How tragic that Ajamu Baraka is forced to write: ‘The Responsibility to Protect the World … from the United States’

“One of the most ingenious propaganda weapons ever developed is that the powerful nations of the West—led by the United States—have a moral responsibility to use military force to protect the rights of people being repressed by their governments.

This violent, lawless Pan-European colonial/capitalist project continues today under the hegemony of the U.S. empire. This then begs the questions of who really needs the protection and who protects the peoples of the world from the United States and its allies? The only logical, principled and strategic response to this question is citizens of the empire must reject their imperial privileges and join in opposing ruling elites exploiting labor and plundering the Earth. To do that, however, requires breaking with the intoxicating allure of cross-class, bi-partisan “white identity politics.”

The result? International Gallup and Pew research polls have consistently shown the peoples of the world consider the United States the greatest threat to world peace on the planet.

National Security Strategy Under Trump: More of the Same

Or that Jeffrey St. Clair had described watching on his teevee:

“In front of South Korea’s legislature, Trump brags about America’s military prowess, a boast reinforced by the looming spectre of three aircraft carriers and two nuclear subs prowling the Korean coastline in real time. He gives the impression that he considers military quagmires about as problematic as the sand trap on the 16th hole at Pebble Beach.

Trump warns that his country, that is, our country, will not hesitate to vaporize hundreds of thousands of beings. We’ve done it before, Trump implies, and felt no guilt, no remorse. This is the voice of a man who has learned nothing from mass death, except that it paved the way for the globalization of American power. In a voice that slips from talking about index funds to nuclear missiles, the prime rate to F-35s, Trump projects the image of president as gravedigger.

Is it possible, Trump seems to ask, to profit from H-Bombs after you use one? Is nuclear war really a growth industry? I was surprised that the Korean delegation didn’t jump up and run screaming from the chamber. Or storm the dais, as they did during the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun.

What happens when the president, a man with the capacity for continent-wide annihilation, strays beyond the reality principle?”

Or that Nick Turse has been blacklisted (wsws)and deemed by the AFRICOM command ‘not a legitimate journalist’.

“Turse explained in an article published by the Intercept on Saturday that AFRICOM officials began stonewalling his queries after he authored an article in July which documented torture by US-trained Cameroonian forces at a US base in Salak, Cameroon.

For several years, the Pentagon has been perturbed by Turse’s reporting, which has exposed the vast spectrum of United States military operations across Africa, most of which it wishes to keep shrouded in secrecy.

With the blacklisting of a journalist who has exposed its criminal operations, the United States military is attempting to control the flow of information to those media outlets who toe the official line, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and other such officially approved media organs which make up the corporate press on which the ruling class can depend.”

How despicable to read Ajamu Baraka’s Dec. 2017 ‘The Empire’s Hustle: Why Anti-Trumpism Doesn’t Include Anti-War’, although we know why that is…and loathe them for their abject hypocrisy.

“The Democrats are playing games with the people by pretending they are going to block increases in military spending during the appropriation stage of the process. And their criticisms of Trump’s bellicosity and claims that he is reckless also are disingenuous because if they thought he was militarily reckless, they wouldn’t have joined Republicans in supporting increased military spending.

Both parties support militarism because both parties support the interests of the oligarchy and the oligarchy is interested in one thing—maintaining the empire.”

I know that readers are familiar with the long list of other nations the Empire and its proxies are bombing, re-colonizing, and occupying, or making war on ‘by other means’.  And that US Special Ops (Nick Turse) are in 138 around the world (70%)  but let’s hear from the Twittersphere:

“Let us instead remember when King refused to denounce protesters by saying “a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”

And when he critiqued capitalism: “Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”

And when he demanded “a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”


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travelerxxx's picture

TPTB and the main-stream press have turned Martin Luther King into some type of benign Santa Clause figure. Not content to just murder the man, the attack has never stopped.

Now, we have MLK Day ... just another excuse to try and sell a Chevrolet or an iPhone.

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wendy davis's picture

@travelerxxx
it's up to us who know to show his radical messages, isn't it? mr. wd reminded me this a.m that the closest town to the north of us (pop. 800) always holds an MLK day pancake breakfast, and always uses a photo from his 'I have a dream' speech on their poster. but in the end, i like it that it's a national holiday. at least all state and federal employees get a paid holiday.

that he forecast his impending death a day earlier...almost made me believe in god. talk about the black prophetic gospel tradition!

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SnappleBC's picture

@travelerxxx

And honestly I was stunned. They were all excited and rushing to sign up. But when it came time to vote they were against everything the campaign lists as goals except the social justice stuff. Don't they realize that inevitably this campaign is going to start discussing Democratic politicians and the Democratic party? I can't see how Barber can make any progress without addressing the duopoly. I don't see how he can be anti-war and not comment on the voting of all members of congress.

I really don't understand how they do it. Heck, at least I acknowledged that in voting for Sanders I was voting for war and that problem would need to be addressed.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

wendy davis's picture

@SnappleBC
or its step-children militarism and in the West, Imperialism, wars for resources, etc.

but oh, my, wsws.org took a look at Bernie the democratic socialist's (I assume) MLK day op-ed at the guardian of the 14th:

"‘Bernie Sanders seeks to derail growing working class opposition to capitalism’, wsws.org (in a nutshell):
“Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders issued a call, published Sunday in the Guardian, for a global effort to overcome mounting economic inequality. It cites evidence of gross disparities in wealth, but offers not the slightest prospect for a genuine struggle against the economic system that has produced such levels of social inequality. Indeed, it is aimed at preventing such a movement.

What is most remarkable about the statement issued by Sanders is that in the course of nearly 1,200 words, there is not a single mention of either capitalism or socialism. Perhaps most significantly, Sanders says nothing about the growing danger of imperialist world war, one that would be waged with nuclear weapons. He makes no reference to North Korea, Iran, Syria and other global hotspots, or to the record of the Democratic Party under Obama in bombing Libya, escalating the war in Afghanistan and making drone warfare a staple of American foreign policy. “Military” is another word that makes no appearance in his Guardian column, because Sanders is a supporter of American imperialism.”

oh, tiddley-pom; I don't have the guardian link now.

I'd kinda hoped I'd run into after our having traded jests over blogging as a female. I went and grabbed a couple sexist, racist ad hominems I'd received at a 'progressive' website lately, and had thought the permalinks would show the words. but alas, the worst was a comment stream of two pages, so would be hard to dig out on its own. anyway, I just wanted to say that I'd neglected that sort of attack.

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wendy davis's picture

exhaustive post-cold war compendium. it's enough to make one go screaming into the night, and worth book-marking for future reference: ‘Giving Wars Too Many Chances’, Nicholas Davies, consortiumnews.org

“Today, after 16 years of occupation by up to 100,000 U.S. troops, thousands of deadly “kill or capture” night raids by U.S. special operations forces and over 60,000 bombs and missiles dropped on Afghanistan on the orders of 3 U.S. presidents, the corrupt U.S.-backed government in Kabul governs less territory today than at any time since before the U.S. invasion.”

“The most recent U.S. atrocity in Iraq was the massacre of an estimated 40,000 civilians in Mosul by U.S., Iraqi, French and other “coalition” forces. The U.S.-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria has dropped 104,000 bombs and missiles since 2014, making it the heaviest U.S. bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam. Iraqi government death squads once again prowl through the ruins of Mosul, torturing and summarily executing anyone they identify as a suspected Islamic State fighter or sympathizer.”

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ggersh's picture

It has been argued that enacting a prohibition on war propaganda as required by the International Covenant is impossible as the term ‘war propaganda’ cannot be properly defined. But this is a poor argument. In the past 15 years, numerous Western states have enacted laws prohibiting incitement to terrorism and in some cases, such as the British 2006 Terrorism Act, even the ‘glorification of terrorism’. Just suggesting that terrorism might on occasion be justified is sufficient to get you locked up in some countries. In Canada, for example, it is a crime to ‘advocate’ terrorism. Yet, you can advocate for war as much as you like.

https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/war-propaganda/

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh @ggersh

great that he'd give so many concrete examples. that forever war and the 'war on terr'a has become normalized is a direct result of massive propaganda by the 'legitimate news' sites and fealty to the 'smartest talking heads' like fareed, et.al. 'today Trump became The President', (after dropping the MOAB on Afghanistan). but I guess that's what 'the deep state' (may be more than one, imo) does.

on edit: propaganda is the theme of the late great (rest in power)john trudell video at the bottom: 'look at us'.

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SnappleBC's picture

@ggersh

You may advocate for our side in the war. You may not advocate for their side. That's kind of classic in a war, no?

It's sort of interesting discussing this with my son, who voted Trump but is not a Republican (or Democrat) and was in Afghanistan. His attitude is Muslims want to kill all Christians and it's a war to the death. He points to propaganda rags (granted, popular ones) on their side to justify his position. I've thought about pointing to the NYT and WaPo and asking him how it's any different but I could tell there was no getting past those mental blocks. He was unwilling to entertain the notion that while there may be a core of religious zealots that core gets it's support from the non-zealots because we are slaughtering them.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

ggersh's picture

@SnappleBC but ya propaganda does work, I remember when
Dubya got crucified for mentioning "crusade", but today
it seems that time hasn't changed anything, it is a
crusade. Or at least that's how tptb want it to appear.

They love when we go after each other.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Arrow's picture

I really liked the Nickolas Davies piece.
I guess the 'trick' is to not despair and keep on pushing forward.
Lots of great MLK content the last few days hereon C99.
Great to see you Wendy. I look forward to you posting more.

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I want a Pony!

wendy davis's picture

@Arrow
...but I sure did appreciate it. yes, we have to push forward, but for me: first comes despair, rage, venting...and then...resolve, whatever that means for a 'keyboard warrior'. anti-war movement? well, it disappeared under obomba, as one of the essayists noted. earlier, ending the draft turned it into a chimera, yes?

oh, dear, I'd seen lookout's in depth mlk report, and I advised JtC that if this one were redundant, please not to bother doing all the work posting it. so thanks doubly for reading it, arrow.

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis @wendy davis

It expands the conversation and adds important views. Greg Palast wrote an interesting "feel good' piece I liked too...
http://www.gregpalast.com/jfk-saved-mlks-life-won-presidency/#more-14889

I enjoyed your piece and the links.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

wendy davis's picture

@Lookout

thank you for it, and I'm sorry to be so long responding. I'd come back a number of times and there were no new comments. I'm also used to getting emails of comments from the café, so perhaps I got lazy?

but boy, if you can find a pbs station with 'I am not your negro' (trailer at the bottom) do watch it; it will not disappoint. otherwise, the entire 94 minutes are on youtube, but soft chairs are better than dining room ones (at my 'desk', half the table, lol).

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Lookout's picture

@wendy davis

...is to go to My Account, My Comments, to see if you have any to address. That's a good trick for me and how I discovered you had responded.

I'll try to check out your suggested show. I have a PBS passport account that lets me see recent (and some old) shows.

All the best...

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Big Al's picture

hypocrites or what. The list is almost endless, from the rich athletes and entertainers (capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”) to the politicians in Congress and Senate, to the democratic party and most progressives ("a radical redistribution of political and economic power").

I don't think MLK would be calling himself a progressive all things considered.

Amazing how fifty years later we are in a worse spot then in 1967 and there is no one to lead us out of the wilderness. It's almost as if capitalism has completely taken over and no one is willing to sacrifice their pieces of the pie, few are willing to call for radical solutions.

I guess we can only wonder about what might have been.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

that's about all my lamus/brainus can do by now, at least mainly. I almost reprised one of the ones I'd written at my.fdl. but I can just imagine what you're saying about the ubiquitous hypocrisy. don't see teevee news or nuttin', but lol, da google had a cartoonized 'I have a dream' speech black-faced crowd. arrrggh. that's about right.

I got an email from a friend a bit ago w/ this at the end: "happy mlkj day! in honor of the struggles of African Americans, Wal-Mart now sells its crap w/o discrimination." the wag.

do you mean he'd be a radical leftist by now? leading strikes and direct actions to #shut it down? or even more serious? I do wonder about the month of actions the breach people (wm. barber, et. al) are organizing starting on mother's day (originally an anti-war holiday), but from the prayers and verbiage I've read so far...I dunno if they intend to call out capitalism, which is the seed of war, as far as I'm concerned. guess well see soon what pops.

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Big Al's picture

@wendy davis Jackson, I assume he would have kept becoming more radical in his thinking and regarding solutions. I don't think he'd be working to elect more and better democrats. But the hypocrites from the sixties never cease to amaze me.

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wendy davis's picture

@Big Al

and the light bulb lit, slowly, but I had linked to this coverage I'd done at my.fdl: 'restoring socialist visionary radical martin luther king' in 2014, and there are boatloads of quotes from paul street's interviews w/ him. here are a couple, which you may agree that causes one to believe he'd be full-out socialist, communist, dunno the dif, really.

‘Worse than merely limited, the gains won by black Americans during what King considered the “first phase” of their freedom struggle (1955-1965) were dangerous in that they “brought whites a sense of completion” – a preposterous impression that the so-called “Negro problem” had been solved and that there was therefore no more basis or justification for further black activism. “When Negroes assertively moved on to ascend to the second rung of the ladder,” King noted, “a firm resistance from the white community developed….In some quarters it was a courteous rejection, in others it was a stinging white backlash. In all quarters unmistakably it was outright resistance’.

When asked about the race riots of 1966 and 1967, King didn’t make any apologies for their violence, but put the onus on “the white power structure…still seeking to keep the walls of segregation and inequality intact” for the disturbances. He believed that the leading cause of the riots was in the reactionary posture of “the white society, unprepared and unwilling to accept radical structural change,” which led to the chaos by telling blacks (whose expectations for substantive change had been aroused) “that they must expect to remain permanently unequal and permanently poor”.

jesse, argh, famously had claimed his mantle, guess cuz he was on the porch of the Lorraine motel w/ him. I did like his attempts to form a rainbow coalition, and even went to the CO state convention for him (oy, did we bring delegates from our county; I ran his campaign). but yes, now he's a dem reformist, isn't he?

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mimi's picture

Douala and Salak, in Cameroon, and the accusations of torture happening there.

Or that Nick Turse has been blacklisted (wsws)and deemed by the AFRICOM command ‘not a legitimate journalist’.

“Turse explained in an article published by the Intercept on Saturday that AFRICOM officials began stonewalling his queries after he authored an article in July which documented torture by US-trained Cameroonian forces at a US base in Salak, Cameroon.

For several years, the Pentagon has been perturbed by Turse’s reporting, which has exposed the vast spectrum of United States military operations across Africa, most of which it wishes to keep shrouded in secrecy.

Thank You. It shouldn't come as a surprise to me, but it still hurts. My deceased former husband, who I divorced over 25 years ago, was Cameroonian and his older brother was a high ranking Admiral in Douala. I remember a little tiny incident while on a trip to Cameroon, that involved his brother, one that I never forgot, because it was a "telling" one. It was unnoticed by others and certainly nothing much, but it was enough to tell me that 'anything' could be possible. That was in the early eighties. I could never trust anyone of them after that. Anyhow, this article gives a little bit of an insight about the Cameroonian military leadership.

CAMEROON
The Biya Military Regime, a Tradition of Corruption

I wait for the days when the US stops bribing and corrupting and co-opting leaders in Africa that are capable of engaging in despicable atrocities.

I wished I hadn't read that. Nick Turse. Thank You.

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wendy davis's picture

@mimi @mimi I hadn't known it either, mimi. but turse has exposed a lot of africom's crimes. ish on your link, and the tragic truth is that Africa is full of leaders-by-western putsches that act as total compradors (foreign agents) for the western capitalists to extract riches, labor, and thus wealth.

I'm sorry for your pain, mimi, and I'm glad you're expressing it.

by the by, I left you a couple extra comments on the 'psychology and psychiatry' thread including the last song john trudell (AIM founder) as the one at the bottom of this post. I left his bio, as well. a magnificent human being as there ever was, imo, who used life's tragic poison to turn it to medicine...for us all.

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wendy davis's picture

than usual last night in order to watch 'i am not your negro' on pbs salt lake city, independent lens. the imdb says of the storyline':

‘In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.’
to call it ‘mesmerizing’ is true; to call it one of the best films ever...would be so in my estimation. lyrical prose, historical images, and as relevant now as in the three friends’ day, although class distinctions have come to bear by now, and the Rabble classes around the world are treated as ‘third-worlders’, as well. i love that he’d talked about MLK and malcolm X finally having a meeting of the heart, soul, revolutionary spirit (iirc, it was after X returned from his Haj. i used to have some film footage of at least one of their meetings then.

baldwin telling his own atypical story and inner thoughts and desires would be one of the best exemplars of ‘Know Thyself’ (is that redundant?) i can imagine. the whole film (99 mins.) is on youtube, but your local pbs stations may have it soon, as well. i’ll try to find it another night, another station, it’s seriously that good. they chose the right clip for the trailer.

[video:https://youtu.be/rNUYdgIyaPM?t=8s]

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wendy davis's picture

after watching 'i am not your negro' and a few memories it had provoked as to who wasn't allowed to speak, who sang the songs, and why X had called it 'the farce on washington'. what i found is illuminating as per the notion that it was coopted into a gentle, non-angry whitehouse approved gathering.

i’d been trying to remember all of the ingredients that caused X to declare ‘the farce on washington’; here’s the relevant excerpt from his autobiography (at least at this site).

it hadn’t told me that my memory for once was correct about the farce re: james baldwin. from da wiki’s from da wiki’s ‘excluded speakers’ entry:

“Author James Baldwin was prevented from speaking at the March on the grounds that his comments would be too inflammatory.[99] Baldwin later commented on the irony of the “terrifying and profound” requests that he prevent the March from happening:

baldwin: “In my view, by that time, there was, on the one hand, nothing to prevent—the March had already been co-opted—and, on the other, no way of stopping the people from descending on Washington. What struck me most horribly was that virtually no one in power (including some blacks or Negroes who were somewhere next door to power) was able, even remotely, to accept the depth, the dimension, of the passion and the faith of the people.

Actress/singer Lena Horne was present but excluded from speaking.
Despite the protests of organizer Anna Arnold Hedgeman, no women gave a speech at the March. Male organizers attributed this omission to the “difficulty of finding a single woman to speak without causing serious problems vis-à-vis other women and women’s groups”. Hedgeman read a statement at an August 16 meeting, charging:

“In light of the role of Negro women in the struggle for freedom and especially in light of the extra burden they have carried because of the castration of our Negro men in this culture, it is incredible that no woman should appear as a speaker at the historic March on Washington Meeting at the Lincoln Memorial. . .”

The assembled group agreed that Myrlie Evers, the new widow of Medgar Evers, could speak during the “Tribute to Women”. However, Mrs. Evers was unavailable. Daisy Bates spoke briefly (less than 200 words) in place of Myrlie Evers, who had missed her flight. Earlier, Josephine Baker had addressed the crowd before the official program began. Although Gloria Richardson was on the program and had been asked to give a two-minute speech, when she arrived at the stage her chair with her name on it had been removed, and the event marshal took her microphone away after she said “hello”.[70] Richardson, along with Rosa Parks and Lena Horne, was escorted away from the podium before Martin Luther King Jr. spoke.

Early plans for the March would have included an “Unemployed Worker” as one of the speakers. This position was eliminated, furthering criticism of the March’s middle-class bias.

Singers:
Dylan also performed “Only a Pawn in Their Game”, a provocative and not completely popular choice because it asserted that Byron de la Beckwith, as a poor white man, was not personally or primarily to blame for the murder of Medgar Evers.

Some participants, including Dick Gregory criticized the choice of mostly white performers and the lack of group participation in the singing.[106] Dylan himself said he felt uncomfortable as a white man serving as a public image for the Civil Rights Movement. After the March on Washington, he performed at few other immediately politicized events."

yes, a bit of a farce, in that the WH arranged it w/ the help of randolph and bayard rustin, then co-opted it.

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