During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. ~ George Orwell
Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Y’all know you can’t plead
'the 5th' with a pardon?
Case File: Burdick v. United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burdick_v._United_States
&
If GOP Republicans did nothing wrong,
why were pardons sought?
Please Watch this video via redditortan:
US Supreme Court 'Appointment
Hearings on Roe vs. Wade
Then, please Watch this video via Rewire News Group ~ The Proof is In:
Susan Collins Tried to Gaslight US
More Examples of GOP Republican McCarthyism...
Up there with: "I am not a crook", "Babies in Incubators", WMD, etc. ???
You want to know what this [war on drugs] was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? ... John Ehrlichman
We [GOP Republicans] knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the [corporate media] evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did. ... John Ehrlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under President Richard Nixon
How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
Bush Family's Link To Nazi Germany
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/guardian-bush-familys-lin_n_438635
Bush's new world order
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/14/september11.usa6
New Order (Nazism)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Order_(Nazism)
Is There A CURE Yet ...asking for a friend?
Above is ROLL [mouse] OVER image. ~ Full Buzz Rises Image
One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.
Disclaimer #6
Nothing else matters ... Metallica arr. Karianne Brouwer violin, Maaike Schoenmaker cello ~ Lyrics
Disclaimer #6. If we want world peace, we must let go of our attachments and truly live like nomads. That's where I no mad at you, you no mad at me. That way, there'll surely be nomadness on the planet. And peace begins with each of us. A little peace here, a little peace there, pretty soon all the peaces will fit together to make one big peace everywhere.
Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech
On Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) on Saturday with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we present two episodes of My World. In the first one, we visit 1951 with Uncle Richard. Henry Wallace is President of the United States and we averted a war in Korea. Great music from the era is heard as well. Back in May, because of technical difficulties, the My World episode was not heard. We’ll hear it now with the second episode in the hour, as we go back to 1973. Nixon loses re-election in 1972, the Beatles didn’t break up, and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin did not die. At 8am (EDT) on Rockabilly Ridge, Michael Ace plays tunes with the rock and without the billy. You’ll have to tune in to see what he means. At 9am (EDT), on Beatlemania!!!, we go back to this day in 1965. We’ll learn what the popular new movies were, and what was happening during the Vietnam War. We’ll even hear a recording from spurned former Beatles drummer Pete Best, which wasn’t a hit around this time in 1965. We’ll hear a batch of #1 records however, and a few hits popular in England. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in DE on WVUD-FM 91.3, Shoutcast [Search: WVUD], and TuneIn
Dahbud Mensch ~ Closing Argument
Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretapping's, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?
*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.
Alan: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
Judge Robert Sanders: Please get out of the chair.
Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
Judge Robert Sanders: Get out of the chair!
Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un American.
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentially, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!
Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say, please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.
Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her. ~ Boston Legal ~ Stick It ~ Season 2 ~ Episode 19 ~ [Video at link] ~ Written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy ~ Directed by Adam Arkin.
Drop Dead ~ Telecom Crimes ~ Patriot Act ~ Denialist ~ Rethinking 9/11
Dahbud Mensch ~ Nobody tells the truth all the time!
Will Americans Continue to Allow Its
Politicians
to Get Away with
Murder & War Crimes
by Shenali D Waduge ~ Article Source
Ignorance rarely leads to happy endings. One cannot but wonder whether American politicians would have gotten away with what they have done had the American polity been more politically aware of what was going on around them both at home and abroad. Has it not been the ability of America’s politicians to sell lies the Americans bought that has led to the deaths of MILLIONS of people and the destructions of their nations?
How Media Fools Americans
96% of world media is in the hands of 6 corporate giants – should we be surprised that we are being brainwashed? Media takes advantage of the ignorance of the American public and preoccupies their time by diverting attention to more physical attributes of Presidential candidates, their spouses and the way they dress, the jokes they say or the appearances they make. When people are politically ignorant what happens – they become prey to manipulations by the “ruling class” and who are they? They are the transnational conglomerates who rule America’s political leaders, the news and entertainment media and special interest groups together who create what become history’s distortions unless we are aware of the truth.
One needs to wonder whether it serves the American Governmental apparatus well to have an ignorant populace for what would happen if 344million Americans did wake up to the ground realities of the atrocities its Government’s have been doing over decades? Would we be wrong to wonder if what happened to Iraq and Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria could have been averted or stopped by pressures exerted by the American public not allowing their Governments to kill innocent people, bomb nations into oblivion and eventually drug its own soldiers leaving one soldier a day committing suicide because of the side-effects of the drugs they are taking?
It is not difficult to deduce that the American public have been conditioned and are being conditioned to think according to how their Government’s want them to think. Is it not because of conditioning that Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, Gun lobby and similar big boys end up deciding who gets to sit on the hot seat of the White House?
Of the top 25 magazines in the US the only news magazine is listed at number 12 (Time – which is dictated by the Bilderbergs). Only 12.5m people actually read the top 25 magazines of which Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is No.1. A National Civic Literacy Study conducted by Xavier University reveals that 1 in 3 native-born citizens fails the civics portion of the naturalization test compared to 97.5% pass rate among immigrants applying for citizenship. America is a nation of reality TV watchers and there are plans to induce the same catastrophe to Asian viewers now mesmerized by reality TV as well. It is good for Asian policy makers to realize this and immediately address this before Asians too end up ignoramus themselves!
How many Americans would accuse mainstream media of being a bunch of paid professional liars? They along with the new peace doves in the form of the human rights champions have no love, no decency, no shame and no fear – in fact they thrive of spewing disinformation, creating lies to deceive people and they hold laborious meetings to devise ways to deceive people to protect those who control the newsmedia.
Ignorance of Americans – Survey results
Pew Research which conducts surveys on the American public’s public affairs knowledge confirms what we perceive to be a primary reason for successive Governments to sell whatever story they like and militarily intervene and destroy entire nations and populations. A Pew IQ study has revealed that only 7% of the people surveyed could correctly answer all 13 questions – half of those surveyed did not know where Syria was on the world map, 43% did not know what the national flag of China was, 75% didn’t know the Euro symbol and thankfully 75% knew John Kerry was the new Secretary of State. How is this possible in a country where its mainstream news channels are providing 24×7 news coverage? How worse can things be when most Americans have concluded that the Boston Bomber – described as a Chechen is thought to be from Czechoslavakia!
More alerted American public could have stopped genocide
If the American people had known the lies their Governments tell would they have been able to question the logic of US killing 1,455,590 innocent Iraqi’s to eliminate just 1 man? Thousands of Iraq’s have been killed since US military intervention in Iraq on the grounds that they accused Saddam for killing “50,000” Iraqi’s without even proof? Did no American wonder why US could not have sent a professional team to strike out just Saddam Hussein and even his coterie instead of bombing an entire nation?
If the American people knew that America was murdering millions to steal Iraqi oil would they have allowed the occupation to take place given that none of these riches have benefitted the common American? Americans must now ask exactly who are profiting from these illegal occupations?
If the American people knew more about the UN laws would they have not questioned why US was invading Iraq when there was no evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Before American public officials go attributing comments such as these as Anti-American it is good for themselves to wonder exactly how they are contributing to taking their nation en route to a course that would only disintegrate their own people and possibly end up creating more enemies than friends. It is not out of any malice that facts are placed but to simply make people ask themselves whether they are going to continue to be misled by a handful of self-centred people who do not care for anyone but themselves and who are using the system to create anarchy throughout the world.
Questions Americans should ask
If the Americans knew the amounts going to these fictitious wars would they not question why US Armed Forces receive the small pay rise since 1973 while billions are going towards funding more wars!
Can Americans simply pass the blame on the Bush or Obama administration because when America declares War on Terror and America invades a nation every death makes Americans accountable because the American Government decides on the POWER the people have given them and if the Powers seated at Washington are evil and corrupt then all those under it are no different.
Do Americans think the world must think like them? Is that not being proud and arrogant? Do the other nations of the world not have cultures and civilizations that have proud histories that people do not wish to dilute them in the name of “democracy” or “liberal thinking”?
If Americans were not as ignorant as they are would they have not asked “since when did it become America’s business to interfere in the affairs of other nations”?
If Americans were not as ignorant would they have not asked why US turned a blind eye to the millions slaughtered in Rwanda when US was alerted of the plan before the outbreak of violence?
Is it not because Americans were ignorant that US officials fooled the people into thinking 9/11 perpetrators were in Iraq and not Saudi Arabia?
Is it not because Americans are ignorant that Wall Street Bankers ripped off $23,700,000,000 (2009/2010) from the American taxpayers and the People’s “representatives” cannot do anything about it?
For Americans, all their Government needs to do is use just one word “terrorist” and the people are ever ready to give killing orders to their Governments but how many even wondered why their Government is using banned chemicals like DU – depleted uranium which has resulted in abnormal children.
[Photographs of mangled babies elided]
Some US soldiers have even stored their sperms in California laboratories in case DU makes them sterile!
Do Americans even wonder that a criminal syndicate has taken control of the White House and do people wonder how proud they can be when their troops leave this message?
Do Americans know enough to question why US had no right and no legitimate reason to invade Iraq and that it was an ILLEGAL war without UN sanction and when US General James Mattis says “its fun to shoot some people” we know doom is on the way.
What if Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama were all part of that criminal syndicate but one person wasn’t and because he didn’t belong he had to go – well this happens when you do not tag the line “The high office of the President has been used to foment a plot to destroy the American’s freedom and before I leave office, I must inform the citizens of this plight.” —President John Fitzgerald Kennedy – In a speech made to Columbia University on Nov. 12, 1963, ten days before his assassination! At the same time, he put a stop to the “borrowing” of Federal Reserve Notes from the Federal Reserve Bank and began issuing United States Notes (which was interest-free) on the credit of the United States. It was the issuing of the United States Notes that caused Jack Kennedy to be “assassinated.”
Upon taking the Oath of Office; Lynden B. Johnson stopped the issuing of the United States Notes and went back to borrowing Federal Reserve Bank Notes (which were loaned to the people of the United States at the going rate of interest of 17%). The U.S. Notes, that were issued under John F. Kennedy, were of the 1963 series which bore a “Red” seal on the face of the “Note.”
How many of the 344million Americans know that the Federal Reserve System is NOT a US Government owned agency? How many are aware that the member banks own all of the stock of the federal reserve banks and these heads are all members of the Council of Foreign Relations?
How many Americans know that Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law and amended the Constitution to make the federal income-tax known as the 16th amendment – once these 2 provisions became law what happens is that people are robbed of their earnings via the income-tax provision.
The day Americans start asking the correct questions either another “terrorist” attack would take place or better still the new laws in place will ensure Americans are too afraid to speak up – the fate of the whistleblowers shows enough reasons to fear the new system springing into being which will be no different under the Democrats or the Republicans.
The NSA leak and Snowden showed us that America and the world are being watched – their privacy is being violated. 30,000,000 US cars have black boxes. The nation preaching transparency and human rights have violated the rights of their own citizens.
Freedom gives people the right to BE wrong but Freedom does not give anyone the right to knowingly DO wrong.
When Americans are appearing to finally wake up and start asking the right questions that is why they are slapped with new laws and regulations to keep them in check and silenced. Surely 344 million Americans can beat the tide and they must.
[Prompted by an article on abuse of politicians online and baby & women killers who continue to walk free.]
None of the Above should be a
Valid Choice on Voter Ballots!
Nobody for President!
Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech
On Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) on Saturday with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) in The Early Hour we’ll have Breakfast at Tiffany’s with the soundtrack by Henry Mancini from the movie based on the Truman Capote novel. Mancini composed music for a number of movies, and we’ll hear samples from some of them. At 8am (EDT) we’re back on Clifford’s Corner with some jazz and R&B sides with co-host Larry Williams. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in DE on WVUD-FM 91.3, Shoutcast [Search: WVUD], and TuneIn
Dahbud Mensch ~ Nobody does more for Veterans than Politicians!
Fourteen Republicans voted against
bill expanding care for war veterans
by Nick Mordowanec @ Newsweek, 6/16/22, 5:11PM EDT, Source
Fourteen Republican Senators on Thursday voted against a proposed bill that would expand health care for veterans of the U.S. military.
The U.S. Senate passed the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022 in a bipartisan effort to address health care, research, resources and more for veterans exposed to toxic substances during military service. All Democrats voted for the bill. [ Continue Reading ~ video at site]
Republican Senators who voted NO:
Tommy Tuberville (AL)
Cynthia Lummis (WY)
James Lankford (OK)
Mitt Romney (UT)
Mike Rounds (SD)
James Risch (ID)
Thom Tillis (NC)
Rand Paul (KY)
Mike Lee (UT)
bonus:
Richard Shelby (AL) ...also voted for illegal Iraq war
Richard Burr (NC) ...also voted for illegal Iraq war
John Thune (SD) ...also voted for illegal Iraq war
Pat Toomey (PA) ...also voted for illegal Iraq war
Mike Crapo (ID) ...also voted for illegal Iraq war
Legality of Iraq War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Iraq_War
It was widely known before the Iraq war
over 50% of the Iraqi population
were children under the age of 15,
and war began with this ungodly act of sheer cowardice
by
a Republican Administration, with Democrat Support.
1,455,590+ innocent Iraqi’s; mostly women and children, murdered in order to eliminate one (1) man, by a person who was in personal contact with GOD, based on an outright lie sent to Mr. Bill on January 26, 1998 ...because 'it was something THEY could all agree on'?
Speaking of 9/11... and Politicians...
Where's the taxpayers missing
2.3 trillion dollars ...Rumsfeld?
On September 10, the day before 9/11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld misplaced some taxpayer money and admitted, "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." [Continue Reading or watching video about this non-suspicious activity ]
'Least We Forget'
Steve Bell @ The Guardian
"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." ~ George W. Bush [click: HAARETZ.COM to read article]
None of the Above should be a Valid Choice on Voter Ballots!
Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech
On Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) on Saturday with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) in The Early Hour we bring you Symphony No.1 by the nearly forgotten Afro American composer Florence Price. Price’s works, which had been neglected after her passing in 1953, have been rediscovered in recent years. We’ll wind out the hour with works by Duke Ellington. At 8am (EDT) we meet on Clifford’s Corner with our own perspective on some great jazz sides and choice and rarely heard R&B tunes with co-host Larry Williams. . ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in DE on WVUD-FM 91.3, Shoutcast [Search: WVUD], and TuneIn
The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival
June 15-18th, 2022, Rodney Square, Wilmington, DE, (map)
ASIFA-SF, Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation, SF Newsletter
ASIFA-SF June 2022 Newsletter [PDF]
Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech
On Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) on Saturday with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) on The Best of Broadway we’ll hear the short lived but innovative musical Flahooley from 1951. Included in the cast are Yma Sumac with her 5 octave vocal range and the eccentric comedienne Irwin Corey. At 8am (EDT) Michael Ace serves up some truly down home hillbilly tunes. At 9am (EDT) we return to this day in 1951 beginning with news from the Korean War, what was playing at local movie venues as well as what was on local television and radio, and when Philadelphia had two major league baseball teams. Oh yes, a lot of great music will be heard along with those #1 tunes. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in DE on WVUD-FM 91.3, Shoutcast [Search: WVUD], and TuneIn
Dahbud Mensch ~ Politicians would never do anything to hurt 'The People' ??? /s
Paraquat Pot
The True Story Of How The US Government Tried To Kill
Weed Smokers With A Toxic Chemical In The 1980s
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/08/paraquat-pot/
When people talk about “killer weed,” that’s typically understood to mean really good weed. But due to US government policies that started in the 1970s and extended through most of the 1980s, marijuana fields were being sprayed with a chemical that can actually kill you.
By Jerome London
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/
Updated February 4, 2021 ~ Videos at source
The chemical, known as “paraquat,” is an herbicide sprayed over marijuana fields in Mexico in the 1970s—with the aid of US money and US-provided helicopters—and over marijuana fields in Georgia in the 1980s under the direction of the Reagan Administration.
But normally, anything poisonous enough to kill plants is also toxic enough to kill humans, and that is the case with paraquat.
What is paraquat and how can it harm humans?
Paraquat is an organic acid that is used as an herbicide. It kills green plant tissue on contact.
When sprayed on plants, paraquat is tasteless and odorless and invisible. In other words, you wouldn’t be able to tell if the weed you were smoking had been sprayed with paraquat.
As far as breathable poisons go, the government has placed paraquat in Toxicity Category I—the highest possible level.
Due to the fact that it is cheap and available, liquid paraquat is frequently used in suicides throughout much of the Third World.
In humans, exposure to paraquat has been linked to the development of Parkin’s disease.
Depending on the dose and the method of ingestion, paraquat can either be immediately fatal or can lead to kidney, liver, lung, and heart failure for up to 30 days after exposure.
Tests performed in 1977 demonstrated that combusted paraquat caused damage to the lungs of laboratory rats.
In 1978, after years of attempting to reassure Americans that smoking paraquat-tainted marijuana was safe, US Secretary of Health Education and Welfare Joseph Califano announced that new tests found that heavy smokers of tainted weed could develop irreversible lung damage and that even moderate users could develop “clinically measurable damage.”
1970s: Paraquat Pot From Mexico Comes To The USA
In 1969, the Nixon White House made marijuana eradication a top priority. Rather than attempting to stop the flow of drugs in through the border, scientists began looking for a way to directly contaminate the marijuana itself. They originally developed a spray that was intended to make users nauseous, but this was shelved.
In 1975, as part of “Operation Clearview,” the Nixon Administration started supplying Mexico with about $15 million annually in aid that included helicopters designed to spray marijuana and poppy fields with herbicides.
Officials had recommended spraying marijuana fields with herbicides—their stated intent was to kill the drug at its source by spraying the fields. But in deeply impoverished Mexico, where in the 1970s harvesting marijuana could make the difference between a yearly income of $200 and one of $5,000, many growers simply harvested the poisoned marijuana and shipped it north anyway.
According to one report, an American helicopter pilot was getting high on prime Oaxacan weed while he was spraying fields below him with paraquat.
According to one study in 1978, 13 percent of marijuana samples texted in the southwestern USA were contaminated with paraquat. Other tests found that anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of the marijuana that had made its way into the US from Mexico was paraquat-tainted. Some samples contained concentrations of paraquat that were 40,000 times higher than the recommended domestic use.
This led to a public panic, seeing as how marijuana may have been even more popular in the 1970s than it is now. Fly-by-night businesses made a killing by offering to test if your marijuana had been sprayed with paraquat. A running joke among stoner comedians was that they would welcome if you’d send them your marijuana to sample for paraquat.
To circumvent the national outrage—which observers noted had been the first time that American students were really pissed off about something since the early 1970s—the government began rolling out plans to at least make paraquat pot detectable to the senses. There were suggestions about releasing a red dye along with the paraquat. Then there were plans to also use an extract of orange peel in the paraquat spray, which the State Department explained would give pot smokers ““the foulest‐smelling joint or brownie they ever had.”
It took a 1978 lawsuit from the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws to force the US Government to suspend funding for paraquat-spraying in Mexico until a comprehensive health study of its effects could be performed.
1980s: Reagan Administration Sprays Crops in Georgia
A scandal erupted in the state of Georgia in 1983 when it was uncovered that law enforcement officials had aided in smuggling drugs from south of the border into the USA. They had also facilitated the planting and cultivation of giant weed farms in Georgia’s Chattahoochee Forest.
In retaliation, the Reagan Administration ordered US helicopters to spray these weed plantations with paraquat and the DEA vowed to extend the practice to wherever weed was being grown in the USA.
For many, purposely damaging the lungs of pot smokers—perhaps fatally—was a punishment that far exceeded the crime. One critic likened the practice to placing land mines in NO PARKING zones.
Luckily, the practiced was quickly banned due to lawsuits filed based on environmental concerns.
Then in 1988, the DEA announced that it would resume spraying marijuana fields with the deadly substance.
The feds terminated this practice in the 1990s but paraquat remains one of the most commonly used herbicides on the market.
These days it is generally agreed that marijuana use is generally safe. In hindsight, the paraquat scare of the 1970s and 1980s seems like a case of “Reefer Madness” gone wild. It is unknown how many Americans were disabled or even killed by this sick and hysterical government policy. It is bitterly ironic that the same government which had for decades tried to insist that marijuana was bad for you had finally found a way to make it bad for you.
About the author
Read more articles from Jerome on Thought Catalog:
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/
Learn more about Thought Catalog and our writers on our about page.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/about/
Panic over Paraquat
The bizarre case of the polluted pot
Time, Monday, May 01, 1978
The soldiers used to climb for hours in the hot sun to reach the marijuana and opium poppies hidden in the Mexican Sierra Madre. Then they had to hack up the crop with machetes and burn it. Starting in 1975, the U.S. made their work easier by providing blue and white helicopters (Bell 212s and 206s), purchased at a cost of about $21 million; some of the helicopters were used to spray herbicides from a few feet above the ground. Others served as gun ships, hovering above to shoot it out with the peasants who took up arms to defend their crop. The program was a great success. In 1977 about 22,000 acres of poppies and 9,500 acres of marijuana plants were destroyed by the spraying in Mexico.
The chemical that most efficiently killed the poppies was an acid known as 2.4-D. The best marijuana spray was a more toxic salt, paraquat, developed by Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries; it is a poison that becomes tasteless, odorless and colorless after it is sprayed on crops. As little as one-tenth of an ounce of paraquat can kill humans who swallow it. Lesser amounts can cause scarring of the lungs, which can lead to an irreversible condition called pulmonary fibrosis. The herbicide can also cause lung hemorrhaging and vomiting.
The peasant growers of the Sierra Madre soon developed a new strategy to combat the herbicides. Paraquat kills in the sun. Its chemistry requires about three days of ultraviolet rays in order to destroy the plants on which it has been sprayed. To save the marijuana, peasants began to rush out and harvest the plants minutes after the helicopters were gone; they put their plants in bags to shield them from the sun. Even though they had been sprayed, the leaves of plants so shielded did not yellow. The plants appeared normal, so the peasants could sell them as if they were uncontaminated. The result: contaminated marijuana was mixed into the approximately 3,000 tons of Mexican pot smuggled annually into the U.S.
That posed a threat to the estimated 13 million regular users of marijuana in the U.S. Illinois Senator Charles Percy, himself no lover of marijuana, began last year to press the Government to investigate just how much contaminated marijuana was circulating in the U.S. Sampling 63 batches confiscated near the U.S.-Mexican border, the National Institute of Drug Abuse detected traces of paraquat in 13. Those findings led Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano to issue a public warning to marijuana smokers a month ago. Said he: "If an individual smokes three to five heavily contaminated marijuana cigarettes each day for several months, irreversible lung damage will result." There was also, he added, a "risk of lung damage for individuals who use marijuana less often or in smaller amounts."
That was enough to trigger a widespread panic. Worried marijuana smokers in Urbana, Ill., told a drug counselor that several of them had vomited and passed out after smoking pot. G.D. Searle Laboratories in Skokie, Ill., reported that 39 out of 40 marijuana samples tested had traces of paraquat. "People are running scared," says Dr. Vernon Patch, a Boston drug-abuse expert. "A situation exists which borders on hysteria," agrees the deputy director of the Illinois dangerous-drugs commission, Daniel Behnke.
Laboratories throughout the West and Midwest, the regions where most Mexican grass is consumed, reported they were overwhelmed with requests to test marijuana samples. In Los Angeles, Disc Jockey Jim Ladd urged members of his post-midnight audience to telephone President Carter with their complaints about paraquat; within an hour, almost a thousand Southern California calls flooded into the White House. More than 5,000 marijuana samples were mailed to PharmChem laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., where 22 new employees have been hired to keep up with the testing demand; last week the lab reported traces of paraquat in 28% of the marijuana tested.
Few studies exist to tell researchers whether or not the panic is warranted. Some experts contend that HEW's warning was based on insufficient data. One specialist at the National Center for Disease Control in Atlanta pointed out that there were as yet no verified reports of illness in the U.S. due to paraquat-sprayed grass. Some experts speculated that there might be less harm in smoking paraquat than in swallowing the chemical in liquid form. "There's no doubt that paraquat causes pulmonary fibrosis when taken orally," observes a California lung physiologist, Dr. Jeff Golden, "but there's a gap as far as knowing what to expect with inhalation." Exploring the medical literature, Golden noted a report that Malaysian farm workers who accidentally inhaled paraquat while spraying with it recently suffered only temporary throat bleeding. Another reason for skepticism was voiced by University of California Toxicologist Dr. Jim Embree, who noted that after more than two years of marijuana spraying, "there should be quite a number of sick people by now."
Even so, the potential for widespread harm prompted demands that something be done about paraquat, notwithstanding the fact that marijuana itself is illegal. In Washington, Senator Percy called for a temporary halt to Mexico's marijuana spraying (but not its poppy spraying; the poppies are used to make heroin). Said he: "The U.S. Government has not fulfilled its responsibility to stop poisoning our own citizens." Dr. Peter Bourne, White House special assistant for health issues, indicated last week that he was urging Mexico to switch from paraquat to some less toxic marijuana spray. Also under consideration: coloring sprays or marking them with an odor to prevent sale of sprayed crops. But Bourne defended the spraying program itself. "Those concerned," said Bourne, "are trying to imply that marijuana without paraquat is totally safe, and we still have no evidence of that either."
Mark of the Beast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Classical Greek word charagma (χάραγμα), translated as mark (of the beast) in Revelation 13:16 can also mean any mark engraved, imprinted, or branded; stamped money, document, or coin.
The mark of the beast is interpreted differently across the four main views of Christian eschatology.
Preterist view
A common preterist view of the Mark of the beast (focusing on the past) is the stamped image of the emperor's head on every coin of the Roman Empire: the stamp on the hand or in the mind of all, without which no one could buy or sell. New Testament scholar C.C. Hill notes, "It is far more probable that the mark symbolizes the all-embracing economic power of Rome, whose very coinage bore the emperor's image and conveyed his claims to divinity (e.g., by including the sun's rays in the ruler's portrait). It had become increasingly difficult for Christians to function in a world in which public life, including the economic life of the trade guilds, required participation in idolatry."
Adela Yarbro Collins further denotes that the refusal to use Roman coins resulted in the condition where "no man might buy or sell". A similar view is offered by Craig R. Koester. "As sales were made, people used coins that bore the images of Rome's gods and emperors. Thus each transaction that used such coins was a reminder that people were advancing themselves economically by relying on political powers that did not recognize the true God."
In 66 AD, when Nero was emperor—about the time some scholars say Revelation was written—the Jews revolted against Rome and coined their own money.
The passage is also seen as an antithetical parallelism to the Jewish institution of tefillin—Hebrew Bible texts worn bound to the arm and the forehead during daily prayer. Instead of binding their allegiance to God to their arm and head, the place is instead taken with people's allegiance to the beast.
Idealist view
Idealism, also known as the allegorical or symbolic approach, is an interpretation of the book of Revelation that sees the imagery of the book as non-literal symbols.
The idealist perspective on the number of the beast rejects gematria, envisioning the number not as a code to be broken, but a symbol to be understood. Idealists would contend that because there are so many names that can come to 666 and that most systems require converting names to other languages or adding titles when convenient, it has been impossible to come to a consensus.
Given that numbers are used figuratively throughout the Book of Revelation, idealists interpret this number figuratively as well. The common suggestion is that because seven is a number of "completeness" and is associated with the divine, six is "incomplete", and the three sixes are "inherently incomplete". The number is therefore suggestive that the Dragon and his beasts are profoundly deficient.
Historicist view
Historicists believe Revelation articulates a full range of the history of the Christian church, from John's day to the Second Coming of Christ. The author alludes to Daniel 2:28 and 2:45; Daniel's vision (Daniel 2) uses symbols giving a sequence of future events in history, from the Babylonian empire, through Medo-Persian period, Greece and Rome, continuing until the end of the current civilization.
This apocalyptic volume builds on Daniel's approach focusing on major points of Christian history: the cross of Christ (Rev. 5:6,9,12); the Second Coming (Rev. 14:14–16; 19:11–16); the 1,000 years in heaven (Rev. 20:4–6); the third advent of Christ to earth along with his loyal followers and the destruction of Satan and those who refused Christ (Rev. 20:7–15); and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth where death, sorrow, and sin cease and God dwells with His people (Rev. 21:1–8, 21:22–27; 22:1–5). The Book of Daniel is divided into two parts: The historical narrative of the captivity of Judah, and the prophecies pointing to both promised Messiah and the events of the end of the world. Attention to the text of Revelation aids the student of Bible prophecy by showing how the Apostle John and Jesus intended us to interpret Bible apocalyptic literature as found in Daniel.
Seventh-day Adventists taking this view believe that the 'mark of the beast' (but not the number 666) refers to a future, universal, legally enforced Sunday-sacredness. "Those who reject God's memorial of creatorship—the Bible Sabbath—choosing to worship and honor Sunday in the full knowledge that it is not God's appointed day of worship, will receive the 'mark of the beast'." "The Sunday Sabbath is purely a child of the Papacy. It is the mark of the beast."
Futurist view
Some fundamentalist Christian groups interpret the mark as a requirement for all commerce to mean that the mark might actually be an object with the function of a credit card, such as RFID microchip implants. Some of these groups believe the implantation of chips may be the imprinting of the mark of the beast, prophesied to be a requirement for all trade and a precursor to God's wrath. Similar objections were raised about barcodes upon their introduction.
Numerical significance
Baháʼí Faith
In the writings of the Baháʼí Faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá states that the numerical value given to the beast referred to the year when the Umayyad ruler Muawiyah I took office as Caliph in 661 AD. He opposed the Imamate, according to the beliefs of Shia Islam, who continued to pay the tax required of nonbelievers and were excluded from government and the military, and thus bore a social "mark". (See also the scholarly accepted year of birth of Jesus about 666 years before as well as the concept of Mawali who were non-Arab Muslims but not treated as other Muslims.)
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the beast identified by the number 666 represents the world's unified governments in opposition to God. The beast is said to have "a human number" in that the represented governments are of a human origin rather than spirit entities. The number 666 is said to identify "gross shortcoming and failure in the eyes of Jehovah", in contrast to the number 7, which is seen as symbolizing perfection. [Continue Reading]
FWIW
The GOD of Christians, Muslims, and Jews said,
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Thou Shalt Not Steal
Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery
Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors Wife
Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor
...amongst other things, and Jesus extended this concept when he said:
Christians are to no longer execute sinners, so they should not wage carnal war, but spiritual warfare ~ (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:1-6; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 6:11-14; 2 Timothy 2:3-5; 4:6-8)
Christians must be peacemakers forgiving those who do them harm treating their enemies with love and not seeking revenge ~ (Matthew 5:9, Romans 14:19), (Ephesians 4:29-32; Colossians 3:12-14; Matthew 6:9-15; Mark 11:25-26), (Luke 6:27-36) (Romans 12:17-21; 1 Peter 3:8-12)
Hatred, which is the same as murder, is unforgiving, vengeful and hostile towards one's enemies ~ (1 John 3:15)
None of the Above should be a choice on voter ballots!
Notes from ~@~
June 4th, Forty-eight (48) Years Ago
Haight/Ashbury Photograph: C. Spangler
Dahbud Mensch ~ Albeit Science (sic) Faction, you were warned.
An example of what I label science faction would reference "From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne, point out how people at that time could not believe a trip to the moon was possible, and bring up NASA's Apollo 11.
Reference 1: UFO-1974 MP3 ~ http://flyingsnail.com/Podcast/UFO-1974.mp3
Reference 2: Rebirth of Evil MP3 ~ http://flyingsnail.com/Podcast/RebirthOfEvil.mp3
Reference 3: Dear Citizens of the World ~ http://flyingsnail.com/Dahbud/stupidactivists.html
Reference 4: United States Civil War by John Titor ~ http://www.johntitor.com/Pages/CivilWar.html
I remember 2036 very clearly. It is difficult to describe 2036 in detail without spending a great deal of time explaining why things are so different.
In 2036, I live in central Florida with my family and I'm currently stationed at an Army base in Tampa. A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people. The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centered on the family and then the community. I cannot imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents.
There is no large industrial complex creating masses of useless food and recreational items. Food and livestock is grown and sold locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiply and divide in their heads.
Life has changed so much over my lifetime that it's hard to pin down a "normal" day. When I was 13, I was a soldier. As a teenager, I helped my dad haul cargo. I went to college when I was 31 and I was recruited to "time travel" shortly after that. Again, I suppose an average day in 2036 is like an average day on the farm.
There is a civil war in the United States that starts in 2005. That conflict flares up and down for 10 years. In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the "other side" of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)...thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed. Russia is now our largest trading partner and the Capitol of the US was moved to Omaha Nebraska.
One of the biggest reasons why food production is localized is because the environment is affected with disease and radiation. We are making huge strides in getting it cleaned up. Water is produced on a community level and we do eat meat that we raise ourselves.
After the war, early new communities gathered around the current Universities. That's where the libraries were. I went to school at Fort UF, which is now called the University of Florida. Not too much is different except the military is large part of people's life and we spend a great deal of time in the fields and farms at the "University" or Fort.
The Constitution was changed after the war. We have 5 presidents that are voted in and out on different term periods. The vice president is the president of the senate and they are voted separately. ~ [John Titor, Continue Reading?]
Reference 5: Z.. Unfinished Story ~ Once upon a time ~ http://flyingsnail.com/zunfinishedstory.html
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because
they don't want their illusions destroyed. Friedrich Nietzsche
Feetlines ~ Reject the Evidence of Your Eyes & Ears
Tainted News:
Tomi Lahren should fight addiction and not have to step on "used heroin needles" to get high?
Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic The Daily Show w/Trevor Noah via Joey deVilla
1,040,000+/-
[U.S.A.] HUMANS DEAD [March 23, 2022]...
Murdered by Political Incompetence?
begging the question: WAS TAINTED NEWS ACCESSORY TO MURDER?
The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State. Joseph Goebbels
I want to thank all the BIG people who helped make this happen; the secretive governments,
the blame-shifting politicians, the 'leaders' who only cared how I might affect THEM...
Cartoon by Steve Sack @ Star Tribune https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Tribune...
Positively 4th Street, Bob Dylan, HQ via Franciescoli Polanni
Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Declaration of Independence
Notes from ~@~ Mask/No Mask?
No conspiracy intended, but when I was younger “Question Authority” was ‘a thing’, so in memory of that, do we need to ask, “Why are people still dying?” ...because, no matter what corporate media says, …something appears to be wrong?
Heads Up Folks!
Bacteria from respiratory droplets spread by one sneeze,
singing one minute, talking one minute, & two coughs via
Dr. Richard Davis, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center
Boptime ~ Saturday Mornings ~ w/Even Steven Leech
On Boptime we begin at 6am (EDT) on Saturday with oldies back to back to back. At 7am (EDT) we experience a better outcome than the actual tragic event that occurred in June 1903 at Prices Corner near Wilmington on My World. After that on Uncle Richard’s Neighborhood a visit from Tux Munce reveals the actual incident and the ugly tragedy that transpired. We’ll hear American composer William Grant Still’s “And They Lynched Him On A Tree,” followed by songs sung by Billie Holiday and Ethel Waters to round out the hour. At 8am (EDT) on Rockabilly Ridge, Michael Ace spins some cult classics. At 9am (EDT) on Beatlemania!!! we bop back to this time in 1966, play tunes that were popular on both sides of the Atlantic, along with a popular local favorite, check out the latest news from the Vietnam War, and dip into what was popular on television and at the movies. ~ Steve
BOPTIME: Saturday, 6 AM Eastern, 3 AM Pacific time
Go To: http://www.wvud.org/?page_id=24
Click on a listening link below the WVUD logo:
Boptime available locally in DE on WVUD-FM 91.3, Shoutcast [Search: WVUD], and TuneIn
Notes from ~@~
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced.~ Tom Smothers
Carlin Step, DJ Steve Porter & Eli Wilkie via Roland Kardeby
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) via R Smittenaar
One Day, Matisyahu via ShalomLearning
Unsung Hero via Rattakarn Srithavatchai "Garn"
The Sacred Clowns ~ Heyókȟa
The Heyókȟa symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakȟáŋ. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.
Principally, the Heyókȟa functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyókȟas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.
In addition, sacred clowns serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyókȟa's don't seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness.
Develop Your Mind, Not Sacred Sites
Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten. ~ Cree Prophecy
Nobody for President ~ NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on voter ballots!
Curtis Spangler & Wavy Gravy, Nobody for President, 197610.12 ~ Photo: James Stark
Nobody bakes apple pie better than Mom, is eternal, perfect, has all the answers, ended war, will love you forever, brought peace to our time, fixed global warming, fed the hungry & destitute, knows, cares, shives a git about you, loves you when you're down & out, and if elected will not lie to, or steal from, 'the people'; ...begging a question, What's NOTA's entry fee ...more lies that lead to mass murder or human sacrifice, when Nobody says why not try love again?
American Dream, George Carlin via Ishtar [Not Work Safe] NOBODY should have that much power!
Message via Mike Pinder
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ by Mike Pinder
Why I Think This World Should End, Prince EA via Prince EA
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear. So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen. The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice. And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know. So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there" Whereupon God reached down and touched the man, But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because
it isn't packaged the way you expect!
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