When You Believe Lies, You Give Your Power Away

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/WHEN-YOU-BELIEVE-LIES-YOU-by-Linda-Ross-110917-173.html

In October, 2009, a public exhibition entitled, ''We did not give it up - stories of the 20th century", was on display in various locations around the center of Prague. The exhibition commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain and honored the dissidents of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia during WWII and during 40 years of Communism. ''We did not give it up - stories of the 20th century", consisted of 150 panels showing the portraits of war veterans, anti-fascists, anti-communists, dissidents and students of the November 17, 1989 Velvet Revolution. The exhibition documented the real life stories of the thousands of Czech heroes who, at great personal sacrifice, fought for the freedom of 10.5 million fellow citizens and their nation.

I see the reflection of present day America in this piece of Czech history. Like the Czechs, too few Americans have reacted strongly in opposition when the rule of law and social justice were in peril. History, in many instances, teaches us that while thousands of heroes have risked their lives for the freedom of their nation, the vast majority have met the urgency of political challenges with an apathetic and weak-spirited response of selfishness, denial and fear.

The current global economic crisis and a peoples' response to it varies from country to country. Inasmuch as we need every man, woman and child in this fight to preserve democracy, the majority will wallow in self-imposed ignorance until after the wicked ruling class have been defeated. Then, they will appear in the city squares and capitols, in great numbers, shaking their keys in solidarity with the dissidents, who at great personal expense, paid the price for their freedom . In Czechoslovakia, it took 40 years to bring down an oppressive regime. And 20 years later, it's still not over. The wounds and scars will take generations to heal.

The reaction to austerity measures in Spain paved the way for a dissident movement who call themselves Los Indignados. They are organizing protests in the city squares and in the neighborhoods and are currently marching from Madrid to Brussels, to raise awareness for their cause. And in Greece, people from all walks of life; students, parents, children, grandparents, public workers, professionals, etc. have come together in Syntagma Square, to protest Goldman Sachs's brand of global economic terrorism and the nation crushing demands of the IMF. The common thread in Europe is that the majority of Europeans know who the enemy is and are not blaming each other for the severe austerity measures imposed on them. They are standing up, in solidarity, and pushing back against their corrupt governments for breaking the social contract at the behest of the global financial terrorists and the IMF.

More at the link --

[Kaleko]

1. "Fiscal austerity’ is a state-implemented program of social destruction, or ‘social genocide’.

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/07/15/167/

"We are entering a global age of austerity, where our political leaders commit social genocide for the benefit of the global banks, and at the behest of the institutions that represent them. The IMF and other supranational institutions increase their own powers and authority in order to punish and impoverish large populations. What has been done to the ‘Third World’ – the ‘Global South’ – over the past several decades is now being done to us, in the industrialized North."

Apocalypse is the Greek word for lifting the veil. It's happening now. Time to wake up.

[PufPuf23]

2. Czechoslovakia and Zappa

One of the things that I like about DU is that there are many people who respect Frank Zappa.

http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/frank-zappa-god-of-the-czech-underground

11 years after his death, the music of Frank Zappa returned to Prague on Tuesday night courtesy of the Grand Mothers, a band composed of 3 former members of his band The Mothers of Invention. Zappa's influence in the Czech Republic is legendary and his popularity persists to this day. Today we take a look at how this iconoclastic Baltimore native became what Vaclav Havel called "one of the Gods of the Czech underground."

Though officially banned before the Velvet Revolution, Frank Zappa's albums circulated widely on bootleg recordings. His irreverent humor and improvisational style influenced a generation of Czech rockers including the legendary dissident band Plastic People of the Universe who took their name from one of his songs. Napoleon Murphy Brock, who played tenor sax and sang backup for Zappa from 1974 to 1984 describes what he thinks the music's appeal was on both sides of the iron curtain.

"His music is not suppressive. So he is not afraid to go into any area or any subject area while composing his music. He talks about everything and anything. He is not, you know, suppressed."

"Zappa had some similarities with the Czech scene and that was that he was fighting something and making fun of the U.S. regime or the banalities and stereotypes of the American culture of the 50s and 60s. He had harder work than Czech bands because it was easier to find something to fight here in Czechoslovakia at that time."

Zappa returned to Czechoslovakia in 1990 at the invitation of Havel, newly elected President and lifelong Zappaphile, who even went so far as to propose that Zappa be made Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism. Zappa, a libertarian politically, welcomed the challenge and immediately began setting up meetings with corporations interested in investing in Czechoslovakia telling The Nation magazine "You don't have to know about international financing. You just have to know about composition." Havel was quickly talked out of the appointment by Bush administration officials who were not too thrilled about the idea of an American citizen (especially not the one who wrote Burnt Weeny Sandwich) serving as a Czech ambassador, but he made Zappa an unofficial cultural attaché all the same.

etc.

http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-08/roc0816b.htm


ZAPPA SHOT DOWN BY BAKER

By: Jack Anderson

When a Texan like Secretary of State James Baker defends the honor of his wife, it doesn't matter how long he has to wait or how far he has to go to do it.

In the case we have uncovered, Baker diplomatically used his surrogates to ace an American rock 'n' roll icon out of a job as the trade representative from Czechoslovakia because the rocker had publicly insulted Baker's wife Susan.

This tale of international intrigue was told to our associate Dale Van Atta by sources in Prague and Washington. Incredible, but true, is the fact that Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel did offer the job of special ambassador to the West on trade, culture and tourism to Frank Zappa. That is the Frank Zappa--the man who has produced more than 50 albums including "Freak Out," "Burnt Weeny Sandwich," "Uncle Meat," and "Weasels Ripped My Flesh," the same Frank Zappa who named his children Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva; the same Frank Zappa whose performance once featured a stuffed giraffe that squirted whipped cream on the audience.

He is many things, but diplomat is not among them, thanks to Baker. Havel, a playwright known for absurd satire, met Zappa in Prague in January 1990, and the two men hit it off immediately. Havel had long been a fan of Zappa's music genius and even credited his music as part of the inspiration for the anti-communist revolution. A Czech group, "The Plastic People of the Universe," named after one of Zappa's songs, copied his style and became an underground sensation in Czechoslovakia. Their revolutionary lyrics so irritated the communist government that the group was thrown behind bars for disturbing the peace.

That mobilized Havel and other artists to form a dissident group that led the opposition and, after communism was toppled, formed the nucleus of the current Czech government.

So Havel had plenty to thank Zappa for. He was so grateful, in fact, that he impetuously created the special ambassadorship for Zappa. The musician left town with Havel's praise in his ears and the adulation of hundreds of fans who treated him as a Czech national hero. He was even talking about applying for citizenship.

Two weeks later, Baker came to town carrying an old grudge. It dated from 1985, when Susan Baker and other well-connected Washington wives, including Tipper Gore, wife of Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., formed Parents Music Resource Center. The group's objective was a music ratings system similar to the movie ratings, based on sex, obscenity and violence.

etc.

[DrunkenBoat]

3. The spanish are organizing "people's assemblies". I found out by accident.

http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/about/

Our media is devoted to keeping us stupid.

I also didn't know that Spain didn't have a debt problem. You'd never know it to read media reports.

"At the beginning of 2010, Spain's public debt as a percentage of GDP, was still not high by European or American standards. It was still less at that time in percentage terms than the public debt levels of Britain, France or Germany."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Spain.

[Kaleko]

4. kick

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Donnachaidh.

[scarletwoman]

6. K&R