Language

Reporter's Notebook: Chris Herz

Putsch in Washington

With whole sections of the military and intelligence bureaucracies in revolt agains the neo-conmen and President Bush it is time to speculate upon what form the putsch that takes hime down will take. Seymour Hersh writes nothing that is not passed to him from very senior military and intelligence officials.  His recent expose of the operations currently ongoing in Iranian territory is only one of many such exercises which cannot and never have come to light without leakage from these senior officials.  

And the reason that happens is because the settler mentality -- one familiar from South Africa through Palestine to Zimbabwe infects our majority population.  They return bizarre and incompetant nationalists and militarists to high office.  This has been consistantly the case since 1968.  When the hegemony of white Americans was broken by blacks at home and yellows abroad.  There could have been nothing more threatening except the revolt of their wives and daughters . . .    

Lyndon Johnson had to be politically liquidated, followed by Richard Nixon in order to end the Vietnam debacle.  And in each case leaks to Hersh and other favored reporters played an important part.  

Forces within the CIA and the Army likewise leaked much information about Iran/Contra, the massacres in Central America and the coke trade which financed all that stuff to Gary Webb and others.

Some of these bureaucrats, like the rest of us, feel like puking when they see things done in the name of the Republic which would better fit Nazi Germany.

And judging from some of the stories leaking even into the yellow establishment press there are plenty of such dissidents within the carreer levels of the government and the services.  

But the real problem is with the delusional fantasies of our electorate.  In a very real sense, politicians cannot really get away for very long with telling any lies the people do not want to hear.  And yes, two generations of reactionary and nationalistic and militaristic propaganda, the shrinkage of public education and the rise of cult-like protestant sects have all played a role in the debauchery of the electorate.  But these things too could not have been seeded into more fertile ground.  

The problem is our electorate.  Suburbia needs those cars.  And those cars need cheap gas.  Rural white America has always been and always will be racist as hell, super into guns and prone to holy-roller religion.  And all that stuff turns right.  As does the Catholic Church, with its peculiar concerns for the sexual, and its record of accomodation with the Fascists in the Europe of the 1930's.  And most of this "Amerique profonde" is all too happy to go with demonisation of gays, subordination of women and all the rest of it.  

A lot is made of this religious stuff.  That is what it is:  Stuff, Buncombe.  Before the Civil War of 1860, the Baptists and the Methodists, then as now the primary Protestant sects, split into Southern and Northern churches.  Naturally the Southerners emphasising that the sons of Ham should ever be hewers of wood and drawers of water for their betters.

Slavery made the church, the church did not make slavery.  And so it is today.  

Our own people want the impossible.  They wish to take from others without trading of their own production.  Because they have outsourced all that to China, and know full well they cannot.  Our people are no fools.  They know we are the world's largest debtor, but if we can stave of bankruptcy by the forced seizure of the Iraqi National Oil Company, or anything else . . Well let's take a shot at it.  And all this crap about a war of faiths, Christianity versus Islam is just so much silliness.

I have worked in the homes of professional military officers.  Some of these guys are really very smart cookies.  Certainly smart enough to know that when it goes down, people like Bush give the orders, Bubba puts yellow ribbons on his redneck limosine, and the soldiers get their butts shot off.  

Yeah, there are lots like General/Secretary Powell who brownose the politicos, and get promoted for it, but the soul of the Army is its colonels and below.  And even more its senior non-commissioned officers.  And I'll bet big bucks one hell of a lot of these guys are not thrilled with what is going down.  Maybe if they were paid with Halliburton stock . . .  But that's a political perk for the big shots only.

In 1968 Lyndon Johnson was told not to run for the presidency by the movers and shakers of the Democratic Party.  This after winning the election of 1964 by the largest margin in modern history.  Vietnam.

Only two years after his own landslide win, Richard Nixon quit, not merely because he was threatened with impeachment, but because General /Secretary Al Haig took away the doomsday button.  At that moment we had something very like a classic Latin American "golpe".  Vietnam.

Throughout the 1980's there were constant rumblings from within important sectors of the establishment about various aspects of the Reagan Revolution.  But because the wars were so low-level, at least in terms of their effects on either the Army or the population at large, all this remained mere rumblings.

And throughout Clinton's presidency there were constant attempts by the neo-conmen to overthrow him.  Including several very interesting incidents of outright disobedience from the military command.  Turn-about being fair play.

But now we have a very, very bizarre President, supported by very bizarre people, doing very bizarre policies.  And not about to be replaced anytime soon by operation of the antiquated constitutional political process.  In fact, five will get you ten it's his brother Jeb in 2008. Meanwhile the establishment has to contemplate life without the dollar as world reference currency, among other little difficulties.  Iraq.  

This column's challenge:  Identify the nature of the "golpe" that takes the man down -- before it happens.

From the Imperial Capital
Chris Herz
cdherz44@yahoo.com    

Comments

I wish I could say I thought he'd be taken down

but I don't see any movement to do such a thing in my neck of the woods. Course I live in an area where over 90% of the white population voted for bush.

I hear the attack against him. It is based on good sound information, but just doesn't seem to stick.

Perhaps due to this:

But the real problem is with the delusional fantasies of our electorate.  In a very real sense, politicians cannot really get away for very long with telling any lies the people do not want to hear.  And yes, two generations of reactionary and nationalistic and militaristic propaganda, the shrinkage of public education and the rise of cult-like protestant sects have all played a role in the debauchery of the electorate.  But these things too could not have been seeded into more fertile ground.  

The problem is our electorate.  Suburbia needs those cars.  And those cars need cheap gas.  Rural white America has always been and always will be racist as hell, super into guns and prone to holy-roller religion.  And all that stuff turns right.  As does the Catholic Church, with its peculiar concerns for the sexual, and its record of accomodation with the Fascists in the Europe of the 1930's.  And most of this "Amerique profonde" is all too happy to go with demonisation of gays, subordination of women and all the rest of it.  

A lot is made of this religious stuff.  That is what it is:  Stuff, Buncombe.  Before the Civil War of 1860, the Baptists and the Methodists, then as now the primary Protestant sects, split into Southern and Northern churches.  Naturally the Southerners emphasising that the sons of Ham should ever be hewers of wood and drawers of water for their betters.

This'll get me in trouble

Screw it. Here goes anyway. A piece on religion I wrote for the Agonist:

From the Middle of Texas, Where the Center's to the Right
Being Christian, Texas-style

©Copyright 2004 Don Henry Ford Jr.

We have just about every flavor of Christian here in the Lone Star State. But we're not one big happy family unless we have a common enemy to focus our attention on. Right now the Moslems are doing a good job of keeping us off of each other's throats.

By Don in Diaries on Thu Oct 7th, 2004 at 11:55:29 AM PDT

My granddad called Abilene home. Most white folks in Abilene are Protestants. In Abilene the three major brands of Christendom each have a college. Abilene Christian University is home of the Church of Christ clan. They don't believe in music, singing, drinking, or dancing. Baptists own Hardin-Simmons. They too shy away from the drinking and dancing. McMurry College is home of the Methodists, perhaps the least restrictive of the three. One of my earliest childhood memories is of Methodists singing Rock of Ages and Bringing in the Sheaves. I still don't know what a sheave is. The way they sang it must be something important. Baptists say a Church of Christ baptism is invalid because they sprinkle instead of dunk. Church of Christians think the Baptists and Methodists risk going to hell because they play evil music. When there ain't any Moslems around, we fight like hell over this.
Just about all of these have this thing called getting saved. You get saved by going up to the front of the church and signing up and then you don't have to worry for the rest of your life for your soul has been saved. You're going straight to heaven to be with Jesus the minute you die. Guaranteed.

Knowing that can change the way you live overnight.

While the other denominations don't have colleges in Abilene, they, too, are represented. In fact we've got more religions than I can bring to mind. I'd list the ones I know but I don't want to sound like that black guy on Forest Gump describing all the different kinds of shrimp.

A lot of the Mexicans are Catholics, and their congregations may have a sprinkling of white folks of German or Irish ancestry. Catholics tend to be quiet and contrite and go through a rehearsed ritual that is largely the same from week to week outside of the homily, which in a protestant church is the portion of the service known as the sermon. That is where the priest interprets Jesus' words for the rest of us lesser beings. Mexican Catholics tend to like saints and usually have a holy statue somewhere in the church, if not a whole bunch of them. They like rosaries and the Virgen de Guadalupe a lot. (Mary remains a Virgen to this day among many Mexican Catholics.)

Pentecostals and its offshoots are not nearly as well represented in Abilene as they are perhaps in East Texas and Oklahoma. Their claim to fame is the manifestations of being "in the Spirit" which include lots of hand-waving, speaking in tongues and maybe even getting slain every once in a while. Being slain looks a whole lot like passing out or an epileptic seizure to me--fact is, I'm not sure I could tell the difference if the preacher weren't there to let me know which was which.

I always felt sorry for the Jehovah's Witness kids I knew. Jehovah must not believe in Christmas gifts because they couldn't have any. And when they got to a certain age they had to put on Sunday clothes, walk around with Bibles and enlist people. They do have one big perk. You have to be a Jehovah's Witness to be one of the 144,000 that won't taste death. Lots of people want to be one of those, so that helps in the signing up process.

I never met any Mormons I know of. But the idea of having more than one wife always intrigued me. Seems like it would be a strong selling point, but they probably couldn't get enough women to go along so they didn't do well down here.

Black churches, regardless of the denomination share common traits and outside of perhaps a similar name on the sign out front, hardly resemble their white cousins. Celebrations are lively, loud and animated. The preacher shouts something out and then asks for confirmation, which he gets with a bunch of powerfully delivered Amen's, halleluiahs and praise the Lords. People sing from the depth of their soul at a black church. And they move a lot. Kind of like those waves at the football game.

All of these churches like the idea of tithing, but the Protestants tend to excel at this. That's where congregants give ten percent of all they earn to the church. It is pretty common to hear preachers tell the flock that whatever they give will be returned to them--at least ten-fold, if not a hundred-fold. It's hard to get a hundred-fold return on your money anywhere else. But it you take a look at the cars these folks drive, particularly at white churches, there may be something to this. I mean there are entire churches where nary a soul makes less than a hundred grand a year. Must be real givers.

Rich or poor though, all have to give and the only one that gets to take any out is the priest or the preacher. Cause the rest of us aren't smart enough to take a look around and see who needs help. So he takes care of that for us.

Really good preachers strive to have the biggest and best building in which to pray and that eats up the majority of the money. Important things first. Among Protestants it is not uncommon for preachers to be wealthy. I know of one that makes two million a year. God must like protestant preachers better than Catholic priests, who tend to live a meager life and can't have a wife.

Celibacy must be rough. Either that or a lot of Catholic kids are liars and falsely accuse priests of wanting to have sex with them. Catholics can't get divorced either. I decided I no longer qualified to be a Catholic when I got divorced--little did I know that everything would have been OK if I had gotten annulled instead of getting divorced.

One common thread among all of these entities is their love of torturing children. Kids are forced to wear clothes they don't like--the little girls prance into the building with ruffled dresses even when it's freezing cold outside causing their bare legs to turn purple; the boys have to wear long sleeve shirts with ties that choke the neck and dress slacks. As a kid, for me the best part of church was when it was over. We always got to eat a good meal and I knew I had another full week before having to suffer through another service.

Most of us Christian folks are convinced that Jesus loves America more than other countries because in America everyone is created equal and we like to share freedom with the rest of the world. Land of the free and home of the brave. The reason we're so much better off than the rest of the world is because Jesus rewards those who love him.

We're not entirely sure what these other nations did to piss God off but they must have done something. Or else they were too dammed lazy to get off their ass and help themselves. I mean look at all those starving Negroes in Africa. And Haiti. And those Indians in South America. Maybe if we ship them some more Bibles, enough will get saved, and things will work themselves out.

And the rag heads--I mean A-rabs--why, they've been killing each other for so long that force is the only thing they understand. Christian folks like us just can't reason with their kind until we thoroughly kill the shit out of a bunch of them. But once they figure out our God is stronger than theirs, they'll come around. We just need to get rid of all the bad ones first. And make the rest realize how futile it is to resist those with the one true God on their side.

Outside of Seventh day Adventists, of which we have very few, our Sabbath is celebrated on Sunday--the first day of the week. Friday night, the beginning of the seventh day--the Jewish Sabbath--the one Jesus acknowledged--is payday, party time, football under the lights (good practice for war), and usually forgetting we don't drink, fight, dance, do drugs or have sex. Emergency rooms are hopping and the jails are full. This usually grows into Saturday night as well, but by then the edge is gone and we get in less trouble. And then Sunday we file in with hangovers and get forgiven and come out righteous again. As clean as the driven snow.

Communists and the devil must have had a lot in common when I was growing up. I got the impression that Jesus believed in the free enterprise system and democracy. (I guess we forgot that Jesus was put to death by a vote of his own people.) But now the communists don't threaten us as much as they used to. It's the Moslems and A-rabs that took up the devil's ways and hate freedom and democracy.

But don't worry. Jesus is on our side now. We kill at least fifty to one in our wars. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands. Now, how could that be if he wasn't backing us?

Satan has also gotten to some parts of America more than others--you know, where the queers live, and in the deep city centers where no one works and everyone sells drugs or takes welfare checks. But prayer is a mighty weapon and the light reveals the darkness and evildoers end up in jail or dead. AIDS takes care of the queers and the dope heads. Jesus gives all good cops the gift of discernment and they can tell who the bad guys are. They might can run but they can't hide. If you don't believe me watch Fox Saturday night--first Cops and then America's most wanted. We have over two million people in prison in the United States. And the State of Texas has more inmates than the entire federal prison system. Prisons provide jobs for lots of good Christian folk. We also execute more bad guys than any other state. What other criminal justice system can brag of such success?

Since nearly all evildoers are also cowards, if it comes to a shootout the good guys nearly always win.

Texas Christians love life--all life (outside of Moslems, starving Africans, and criminals). We even keep unconscious old people and those with cancer alive as long as we possibly can. We want them to get every day they have coming. And we don't tolerate fetus-murdering women. Why, I've even seen us keep a baby without a brain alive for over a year. What would he have had without us? We even love and respect embryos (especially white ones).

One thing we know better than the rest of you: God is on our side. Ye of little faith cain't do shit up beside a Texan Christian because you just don't believe hard enough. This country was going straight to hell until we stepped up and took over. But not to worry. Our faith is strong. Strong enough to bring the rest of you along also.

Keep your eyes on God and Jesus and keep on praying and everything will work out fine. Brother Delay is whipping those non-believing congressmen into shape. He's the real deal. Brother W. won't get swayed too far by all those non-believers and Yankees with Delay covering his back.

Two out of three branches of the government under our control.

And the Supreme Court within our grasp.

Four more years and we'll be well on the way to having all our country's problems solved: Legal abortions. Queers getting married. Prohibition of assault weapons. Smoking marijuana instead of taking legal pills for diseases. Schools teaching doctrines contrary to the Bible like Darwin's theory of evolution, and disallowing mandatory prayer time. Killers of embryos for stem cell research. Communists, socialists and those that practice evil religions. Unfair taxes. Welfare. Foreign countries denying us the right to our oil. Count them gone. As far as the East is from the West.

After all. If God is for you, who can be against you?

And to think that all of this began two thousand years ago with some dark-skinned Jewish prophet that wandered around the desert without a pot to piss in. We sure have come a long way.

By the way, we get really pissed off when people tell us we can't post the Ten Commandments in our government buildings.

(Here's something from the Bible I've never seen posted on courthouse steps):

The Beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called children of God.
Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Note: I have found good-hearted people and those that live exemplary lives in all of the above-mentioned denominations. I admire and respect the teachings of Jesus and those who try to follow them. But what I see among those going to church and calling themselves Christians in my neighborhood hardly represents the loving and tolerant individual I imagine when I think of Jesus. It is precisely for that reason that I am concerned with the state of religion in my homeland.

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