LINO – Libertarian In Name Only

ORLANDO, Florida – Barely twenty-four hours in and already the Libertarian party of two thousand and sixteen is starting to experience dissention in the ranks.

Over Memorial day weekend Libertarians came together from across the country and around the world to nominate their president and vice presidential candidates at their annual national party convention. And for many the top of the ticket for the fall and the general election season is troubling, deeply troubling.

Many Libertarians say that with the assention of former Massachusetts Governor William Weld to the vice presidency that it will just give the North American Union types and Wall Street Big Money Donors a paper tiger in a Gary Johnson administration, should he win the presidency in the fall.

Because from sun-drenched Florida and the grave of the late great Economist Harry Browne, the 1996 and 2000 Libertarian party nominee for President of the United States of America, you can hear the battle cry of LINO – Libertarian In Name Only!

No doubt the Johnson-Weld ticket will tell Libertarians and you fellow voter nothing could be further from the truth. No paper tigers here, no LINO’s allowed! And so it will go, no?

But lets look at it from this perspective for just a minute, shall we? My prediction is that the Johnson-Weld ticket will be Libertarian-lite in that they’ll run under the Libertarian party banner but will, instead, draw from the well of the Never Trump Never Hillary movements in a kind of “A Coalition of the Willing.” Or as Bill Clinton and Dick Morris did so infamously in the 1990’s, “Triangulation.”

Seeking out those disgruntled and disavowed  Democrats and Republicans who just can’t stand the idea, much less stomach it, of another Clinton or that for matter a Donald J. Trump in The White House.

Or, maybe not? Maybe just maybe it’s what they all really want, and it’s just going to be made to look like it’s not? Just so the media, talking-heads, politicos and party bosses can have something to talk about on the nightly news.

In either case I like Bill Weld and have enormous respect for Gary Johnson, ever since 2011 when he first ran for the presidency. Then as now Johnson stands for some of the same things that I do, but with Charles and David Koch, through Bill Weld, pulling on Johnson like he’s a puppet and they’re the masters even I can’t stomach that!

I hate Charles and David Koch with every fiber of my being for what they have done to this great country of ours and this beautiful world in which we all live. They are evil incarnate, in my opinion, and hell itself would be a far worse place with them in it.

I call LINO – Libertarian in Name Only! And for those disgruntled and disaffected Libertarians I offer this as your Battle Cry:

Hold fast, and as Jesse Ventura says, “Stay Vigilant…”

–Rhett.

On this day in history: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. M.E. & PhD. was slain

It was on this day in history, forty-eight years ago today, that; father, son, senior pastor and infamous civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Michael Luther King, aka Martin Luther King, Jr. M.E. & PhD. was reportedly put down by a lone assassin’s bullet while he stayed at the Lorraine Motel (now the site for The National Civil Rights Museum for the United States of America) in Memphis, TN. USA on the evening of Thursday, 04 April 1968.

Reporting by the Los Angeles Times in April of 1968 and the iconic photo from the assassination of Dr. King on 04 April 1968 (photo editing by Rhett E. Column, Say What News, 2016)

History records that Dr. King and representatives from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as the Poor People’s Campaign  had come to Memphis to stand in arm in arm solidarity  with the Memphis African-American (and some White and Hispanic) Sanitation Workers, who were on strike then for; better wages, safety standards and conditions. As well as fairer treatment  by City Officials, including then Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb, in terms of the sanitation workers wishing to join the Labor Union known as A.F.S.C.M.E.U or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union.

A display in the famed National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN. USA depicting the striking sanitation workers for the City of Memphis in Shelby County, TN. USA, the strike lasted from February of 1968 to April of 1968 after Dr. King was assassinated (photo courtesy of The Boston Globe/Getty Images c. 1995)

 

During the last two weeks of his life Dr. King was under continued and constant threat, and his very words on the subject of his eventual demise were these:

“This is what is going to happen to me also. I keep telling you, this is a sick society.” – speaking to his wife, Dr. Coreta Scott-King, PhD. & Ed.U. about the assassination of then U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

“And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats… or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?” – excerpt from “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Speech, Masonic Temple at Church of God in Christ headquarters on 03 April 1968 (A Wikipedia Page on the Speech) 

And even though history records both truth and fiction, strangely intertwined, in ‘amongst them’ that knew him best. That such a monumental undertaking – the putting down of the American dream – was the work of one lone man and one lone man only, James Earl Ray.

That no one from the Mafia, much less some “two-man hit team on the rooftop of a firehouse just across the street from the motel where Dr. King stayed at in 1968,” did this.

That to believe in conspiracy and ‘bogeyman theory’ or  to make straw man arguments that it was any one or any thing other than James Earl Ray that did the deed on that fateful day forty-eight years ago,  is to do the world a disservice. And to just go on and accept the fact that a two-bit thief and drifter from Ewing, MO. USA by way of Alton, IL. USA, “killed the dream”.

And so it goes…

But here’s the thing:

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Family, March 17, 1963 (Left to Right: Martin Luther King, III, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dexter King, seated, Dr. Coreta Scott-King, and [Elder] Bernice King; photo courtesy of The King Center for Civil and Human Rights)

IF we accept this fact alone then we would be forgetting history, and disregarding the TRUTH, the WHOLE TRUTH and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.

And the truth is, is that the Government of the United States of America conspired, plotted, and planned “the death of the Dream,” and that the Family of Dr. King proved it in open court and were able to bring suit (the only ones ever to do so by the way) against the government for his death, c. 1999.

And no [Chief Justice Earl] Warren Commission or  a United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations in the United States of America is going to tell me otherwise.

No! Only God Himself, History and the man for whom this posting is written about will be able to tell me otherwise.

Rest in Peace Dr. King, though [y]Our Dream is not yet fulfilled…

–Rhett.

 

BREAKING NEWS! Chelsea Manning found guilty of BOGUS charges, BUT spared indefinite solitary confinement

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas – Breaking News! U.S. Army Pvt. Whistle-Blower, and Political Prisoner Chelsea E. Manning found Guilty as Charged by the Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks Boards, late last night, of having “illegal contraband in her jail cell, an expired tube of toothpaste, and disorderly conduct” for a

Here are the first four official charging documents from the US Disciplinary Barracks (USDB). More coming soon pic.twitter.com/6Zetual5f2

— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) August 13, 2015

02 July 2015 incident involving a packet of mustard, a condiment, spilled (by Chelsea) and or knocked off the commons table in front of a prison guard? Can you imagine?

As we’ve said here before, “Say what you want or will about Chelsea Manning, you can’t deny that she didn’t show you something about Our Government, especially about the hay days of the so-called, “War on Terror”.”

Although this is a setback to the Chelsea Manning support network it is “still a victory because Chelsea will not be spending the rest of her days in solitary confinement. And will continue to speak out.”

We won an important victory by keeping Chelsea out of “indefinite solitary confinement;” however, this ruling of guilty on all four absurd charges is not without significant ramifications

Chelsea is to be confined to her cell for 21 days, limited rations, and no privileges will be granted to her during that time.  What does privileges mean? No social interaction with the other inmates, no access to the library, no exercise, etc. Essentially she will be confined to her cell for 21 days and the incident of 02 July 2015 will remain on her record.

For her part, Nancy Hollander, Chelsea’s Attorney summed up the verdict in this way:

“As Chelsea’s lawyer, I am horrified and angry about these convictions. This was a star chamber where Chelsea had to defend herself in secret.These convictions will not silence her. She will only be stronger and we will fight that much harder in her appeal to overturn her convictions and her sentence [..]”

Moving forward we look forward to the day when Chelsea and all whistle-blowers will be freed, exonerated, and hailed for the heroes that they all are.

In Solidarity,

Rhett E. Column

#SayWhatNews Approved!

“The Say #Bergdahl Affair Continues…” By Rhett E. Column; #SayWhatNews, #AXJ, #FreePress

United States Army Sargent Bowe R. Bergdahl, First Class, gestures in this photo, speaking on his five-year captivity abroad in the Summer of 2014…

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Just when we thought it was over, the matter settled we have this late breaking news from the Army Times on Sgt. First Class Bowe R. Bergdahl, the Taliban Prisoner of War who on 31 May 2014 returned to the states after five years in captivity.

As we know Sgt. Bergdahl was exchanged for 5 Git-Mo detainees. And while the Sgt.’s return to the states and eventually home to the Midwest where he is from is a good thing the matter is far from over.

It has been intimated by the Army Times that Sgt. Bergdahl could face court-martial and forfeiture in pay and benefits if found guilty by a Superior Commanding Officer.

A formal article of inquiry will convene soon under Commanding Army General Mark Milley, Army Forces Command, who will preside over the inquiry, which sources tell me is scheduled to convene after the first of the year, possibly in the early Spring of 2015.

Although the process could go to the court-martial side it could also be ‘overlooked’ as a matter of ‘mistake while in service’.

We should watch this closely because in the case of Chelsea Manning, formerly, United States Army Pvt. Bradley E. Manning,

Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, and Chelsea Manning, side beside photos…

a great compare and contrast can be found between her situation and that of Bowe Bergdahl’s.

On the one hand you have someone in Chelsea Manning who simply told the truth, continues to tell the truth to this day! It has been intimated that Bowe Bergdahl abandoned his post, walked away went Absent Without Leave or A.W.O.L. and could, ultimately, just get a slap on the wrist potentially or be court martialed from the United States Army.

Whereas Chelsea Manning never left her post, never wondered off, stood with her comrades in arms and told the truth of the so-called War on Terror. Yet she sets languishing in prison. In this place.

United States Federal Penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, KS, U.S.A…

While Sgt. 1st Class Bowe Robert Bergdahl sets at some desk in San Antonio, TX.

With all due respect to our President and Command and Control Authority for the United States Military (the United States Army in particular) I call BULLSHIT.

You cannot treat one case one way and another case another way you have to treat EVERY ONE with Equality, Fairness & Justice OR don’t treat them at all. Period. Full stop.

Chelsea Manning has just as much right to a fair and speedy retrial. Just as Sgt. Bergdahl has his first shot of many to the same. (As his process has just begun, whereas Chelsea’s is on going.)

Yet, still and all it is contended and maintained by the powers that be for the United States Army, and our Commander and Chief himself that Chelsea Manning ‘deserves what, “he” gets’. ‘ “He,” broke the law. Bergdahl was a prisoner of war who served with honor and distinction’. What? Say what?!?

What proof have you of that? The word of the George W. Bush Administration? Watch!

These days it’s not looking to good for the home team there. Unless you want to give them another Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free-Card again Mr. President?

Given the likely hood that Mr. Bergdahl will get just a slap on the wrist and Chelsea Manning will get the kitchen sink of United States Army Chief of Staff General Raymond T. Odierno thrown at her.

United States Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, Department of the Army Photo/Chiefs of Staff Photo…

We need to watch these spaces closely folks!

–Rhett.

#Blog: “WHY I thought about Terry Anderson (and Waite)…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

   TO DATE, he’s been just one of two U.S. Journalists ever held in captivity ,overseas, for any length of time greater than a year.

On the morning of 16-March-1985 Terry A. Anderson, a then reporter for the Associated Press, was taken off the streets of Beirut, Lebanon shortly after he had finished playing tennis with some friends. Captured by Shiite Muslims he remained a hostage for six years and nine months before he was returned home to the Buckeye State to the loving arms of family and friends.

Since that time Mr. Anderson has spoke and lectured at major and minor institutions of higher learning for years, and ran ,once, for higher office in Ohio, unsuccessfully, in 2004.

Link #1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Anderson

Additionally Anderson is one of a handful of American Journalists that the United States has ever willingly and been desirous to negotiate for. So he is in an exclusive club.

As the fallout continues from the #BergdahlAffair I thought a lot about Terry Anderson and another Terry named Terry Waite.

Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Waite

  Mr. Terry Waite became a hostage himself while working to negotiate for the release of the 1979 U.S. Embassy contingent who had been held in captivity by Iranians and the Supreme Leader of Iran the Grand Ayatollah Khamenei for 444 days (1979 to 1981).

Link #3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis

Waite was  a special envoy for the Church of England who had traveled to Lebanon to negotiate for the release of the hostages, and although he managed to get some of the hostages released he found himself a reluctant guest of the Ayatollah. Mr. Waite along with the remaining hostages from that crisis were finally returned home after nearly 2,000 days in captivity in 1991.

Since that time Mr. Waite has spent his time for peaceful means to an ends of crisis’s and world affairs. A humanitarian and an author of many books he now spends a majority of his time working for the causes of Christ in the Quaker church orthodoxy.

 

The #BergdahlAffair ….

  A lot has been made concerning this trade off of Sgt., 1st class, Bowe Robert Bergdahl, U.S. Army of Hayden, ID. U.S.A.

Should the president or shouldn’t have the president, President Barack Obama, signed off on or okayed this trade? The key questions and the answers lie with those who negotiated this release. From Git-Mo Bay, #Cuba to Kultarr and from Washington, D.C. to the foothills of Afghanistan and the strongest of strongholds for the Taliban. Was the law abided by? Were the rules of engagement, negotiation, proof of life, and more importantly the Uniform Code of Military Justice adhered to and respected by those most important as well as influential throughout the command and control chain? Was it?

  Has the returning home of; for once, for good and for all of one Bowe Robert Bergdahl, been a success or a failure, by the book?

Clearly the returning home of any of our citizens is a good thing, PERIOD, FULL STOP. Of that their is no question BUT, was the Rule of Law and the Prophets adhered to? Can the key players involved here walk away from this with their heads held high with American pride knowing, KNOWING NOW, that the letter of the law has been abided by?

And an argument, I think at least, can be made concerning the Iranian Hostage Crisis and the Anderson Hostage Crisis along those very same lines. Was the letter of the law adhered to there? Sure we got our people back from foreign soils and the domestic state of play. BUT, many a good U.S. Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine died in the process there of. Has anyone factored that FACT in?

Link #4: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

The Rule of Law? The Rule of Military Justice? Basic human decency and regard?

Was that all important public private partnership adhered to throughout this process?

These are and should be the questions asked and answered?

For their parts Waite and Anderson have no doubts. Such an experience, in their humble opinions, would not be wished on their worst enemy or their best friends.

After all, it is written in the Good Book that, “none should perish but that all should have eternal life through #Jesus Christ our #Lord.” Amen and Amen.

Yet and again I keep going back to the fact was the Rule of Law adhered to? Never mind the newsroom water cooler portended talk of dissertation, dereliction of duty, unauthorized absence or absent without leave on Sgt. Bergdahl’s part and partial that will be adjudicated soon enough!

TRUST ME when I say,  it will be sooner rather than later IF Californian Congressman and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin have anything at all to say about it. And I for one hope and pray that they do!

But such right now and for the moment, is beside the point, the FACT IS we got one of our own back with little problem BUT STILL, a whole bunch of issues.

History however, as well as the Rule of Law, is not done writing this chapter in the life, times and presidency of one Barack H. Obama, II., and the Honorable.

WATCH, this space folks. WATCH it very, very closely…

–Rhett.

“3 for the price of 1: Dr. #MayaAngelou, #EdwardSnowden and #EricShinseki…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

“…and say simply, very simply ‘Good Morning’…”–Dr. Maya Angelou, Inauguration of President William J. Clinton

 

 

GOOD MORNING… TODAY is Friday, 30-May-2014 and as I write this #blog three earth shattering things have happened.

Dr. Maya Angelou has passed from this life to the next.

Edward Snowden was interviewed by a major news network for the first time in as many months as he quote unquote, “blew the whistle…”

Former four star United States Army General Eric K. Shinseki and Secretary of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has resigned after the whistle was blown on an apparent scandal ridden public healthcare system.

 

These three things are earth shattering and have commonality in that they are indicative of the near diseased ridden system that is public discourse in the United States of America.

To be sure the still free world needs an information system in order to sort through the muck and mire that is Washington, D.C., MOREOVER Capitol Hill. BUT when the very self same information system is itself near diseased ridden We The People should call FOUL. Call out those who do us more harm than good. And this week this is exactly what I’m doing and I hope and frankly pray that you will join me in making the call.

Dr. Maya Angelou was both a national and international treasure. NOW, she belongs to the ages. The words she wrote, the actions she undertook the wisdom, advice, and council she lent to those who would listen was invaluable. She will be, for me at least, sorely missed. Because of her I now know why the caged bird sings. WHY it sings yet still. Her whit, wisdom and turn of words and phrases will forever live on and give those who are willing to listen invaluable insight and self worth beyond the generations yet to be. #RIP.

 

Ed Snowden….

  GOD BLESS, KEEP, PROTECT, AND SUSTAIN Mr. Edward J. Snowden, Amen and Amen….

This week NBC’s own Brian Williams aired a one hour, in five, one on one interview with the former N.S.A. contractor. To date the fallout, to say the least, has been tremendous. EVERY ONE, who that is anyone has weighed in on this interview. Is talking about this interview. In fact the N.S.A. itself has responded to the questions and queries raised. To his credit Brian Williams conducted a fair, insightful, intelligent and eye-opening interview with the young whistle blower. To his credit Edward Snowden himself was brilliant. He continues to challenge the status quo in Washington and around the world. So called Establishment politicians have scattered like roaches when the lights are turned on to ‘fix the glitch’ and C.Y.A. themselves and the Intelligence Community. HOWEVER the thank you’s have been scant. In fact what has been in unnamable supply is the criticism and critique of Mr. Snowden by the establishment. Every thing from the usual, “Snowden is a traitor” to “He’s caused untold damage to our intelligence system”. And so it goes….

  Respectfully. Respect fully. I call bologna and cheese. Furthermore ,and lets take a moment to look at this, the contention raised regarding the untold damage that Snowden himself, no one else mind you, has caused to our so called Intelligence community.

Intelligence…

   HERE sets the emblem of the United States of America’s Central Security Services, The Emblem of The Intelligence Community. On this emblem rests the souls and the bones of men and women far greater than you and I and somebody named Laura Leigh Hobbs from Flint, MI. U.S.A. …. It represents what once was ,but could be again, SAFE, LEGAL, EFFECTIVE Intelligence gathering.

To hear it told and to have it said though all is well, all is right with what we are doing in the good name of the American people. Nothing to see here, move along. All the while though untold damage has been done by a thirty something unassuming man from North Carolina. The world as we know it has been compromised. Been set to by the set to as it were. We have been doing nothing illegal while doing everything illegal and Edward Snowden turned on the one light in the room that he shouldn’t have.

   … And so it goes. And the roaches have scattered. Are scattering and will continue to scatter. And they don’t like to be scattered. You see when roaches are disturbed they do two things. First they pee. Then they crap. Lastly they find the darkest and coolest place possible to hide because they are susceptible to sun burn. Their skins are sensitive and burn easily. The turned on light from the room begins to burn their skin. So they scatter. The roaches on Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Ave., are burning. And it is Ed Snowden that is doing the burning. Bottom line.

 

General Eric K. Shinseki, United States Army (Retd.)…

   SIR, I’m deeply and profoundly sorry that despite all that you have done in service to your country, both publicly and privately, that your country has thrown you under the bus. #SadButTrue.

RATHER than sticking to his guns Barack H. Obama, II., willingly allowed and accepted the tenured resignation of Secretary Shinseki today. DESPITE evidence to the contrary that Mr. Shinseki had jack diddly squat to do with the mess the veritable clust f^)k that is the Department of Veterans Affairs our President still accepted Mr. Shinseki’s resignation.

WHY??? … This very week Capitol Hill in roach-like-scattering-fashion ran while Shinseki stayed. Stood his post and tried his best and hardest to fix the glitch, correct the record and make anew the system. YET, the underside of the bus couldn’t get occupied fast enough. WHY? Answer: The light has been turned on, the nepotism exposed, the ineptness, folly, wanton and avrist has been brought to bare, full bore, and now that it has no one knows what to do. Nor, and for that matter, do they really and truly want to do anything about it.

Eric Shinseki tried and was made to fail because of a system and a status quo that neither wants or is willing to do anything to better anyone, anywhere else, save themselves. Bottom line.

Because of this FACT and the others I just mentioned I now know why, truly, the Caged Bird sings, and she sings yet still. The sixty four thousand dollar question is though are we willing to listen to her song?

–Rhett