FEMEN protest in Berlin as prostitution law reforms loom

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Sabina Becker

femen-artemis

Five FEMEN members in Berlin chained themselves to the trademark “Berlin Bears” outside the entry to one of the city’s biggest bordellos yesterday. And as EMMA reports, this comes as the Bundestag debates what to do about Germany’s lax and embarrassing prostitution laws:

Five FEMEN demonstrators chained themselves to the two Berlin Bears in front of the entrance to the megabordello “Artemis”. Some johns gave them a wide berth. Others didn’t let that scare them off. The FEMEN message: Prostitutes are living in chains, and not only in this bordello. It’s time to break these chains!

“Even at the reception desk, our lovely ladies will greet you with a smile,” says an ad for “Artemis” in Berlin, just one kilometre away from the Berliner Messe. On Wednesday night, the johns didn’t get such a nice reception. At 8:00 p.m. the FEMEN showed up in cars, and took off their tops. On their skin they had painted slogans like “Don’t cum on human rights!” and “Go rape yourself!” They chained themselves on the woman-sized bear figurines, the trademark of the capital city, in front of the entrance of a so-called FKK-club.

It took half an hour for the police to arrive and sever the chains with bolt-cutters. Meanwhile, there was a scuffle as two (female) workers from Artemis tried to stop the five women’s protest.

Some of the johns turned around in the parking lot at the sight of the FEMEN at the entrance. Others didn’t let either the activists or the police scare them off. They marched into the brothel anyway, according to FEMENstrator Debbie. “That shows one more time that prostitution has arrived in the middle of society.” And: “It’s unbelievable that a world-class city like Berlin should advertise with a bordello, in which women are made into merchandise!” The sexy capital city doesn’t care about that. In Berlin, there have even been public-transit ads for the “wellness brothel”.

Taxi drivers and pensioners pay reduced entry rates to the self-styled “oasis of well-being”. All others, 80 euros — including bathrobe, towel, hairdryer, and breakfast buffet. Now, for the holiday season, there’s even coffee and Christmas cake in the afternoons. Not for the 60 to 70 prostitutes in the bordello, but for the 600 johns for whom there is room.

Whether the guys hanging around in the parking lot in front of Artemis are johns or pimps, is hard to say, says FEMEN’s Theresa. Poor bastards, they obviously aren’t. “The cars that park there cost upwards of 80,000 euros.”

The FEMEN protest is also aimed at the politicians, who are currently looking at a reform of the prostitution law. Their aims don’t go far enough for FEMEN. “It’s not enough for us that only the customers of forced prostitutes get punished, that’s just eyewash,” says Theresa. Because “whether a woman prostitutes because she’s forced to or not, can hardly be verified in practice.”

FEMEN, who are among the 90 first signatories of the EMMA appeal against prostitution, demand the Nordic model for Germany: Punishment for all johns.

Translation mine. Linkage added.

So we can see that sex capitalism, to call so-called “sex work” by its right name, is a very unequal proposition. The “workers” don’t get the perks that the pricey-car “clients” do. For the women, everything is extra. You have to pay extortionate daily room rates just for the “privilege” of working there. Prostitution is neither a charity, nor a social-welfare agency. The German megabordellos are not only unglamorous as a lifestyle choice, they are a shitty way to make a living. And it’s hard to imagine any German woman with a full slate of choices actually wanting to work in one.

And indeed, as I’ve blogged here before, most of the hundred-thousands of women (and girls) in German megabordellos are NOT Germans, nor do they have a whole lot to choose from. Most are imported from the poorest parts of Eastern Europe, often under dodgy circumstances. It’s hard to say exactly how many are slave trafficking victims, since only a police raid can uncover the truth, and the ladies are often coached to smile and say they’re making good money, they want to be there, blah blah. The traffickers have trained them extremely well, and if one of them makes trouble, she’s out, to face an even rougher (and often painfully short) life on the streets.

And since a lot of these women are supporting jobless relatives back home, the pressure to behave properly is overwhelming. It’s seldom, if ever, that a prostitute from a perfectly legal German bordello will drop the hammer on her exploiters. It’s not just her life and livelihood, but that of her entire family back home (who often live under menaces from organized crime) that’s at stake.

The legalization of bordellos in Germany has only made the traffickers’ job easier. Not that of the prostitutes. Never that of the women. Their work is as hard and awful as ever. They have to put up with every kind of shit that the johns see fit to dish out, and contrary to all “libertarian” arguments about “sex workers’ rights”, they have no right of refusal. If you work in a German brothel, you’ve essentially signed away your right to say no to things you don’t want to do. You have to serve all comers, and you have to do it their way. If a “client” wants to have anal sex without a condom, no one in the brothel’s management is going to stop him. It’s not the woman’s “wellness” that matters, after all. She’s only paying for the room…and as long as that money keeps rolling, and fresh women keep getting trafficked in from Romania, Bulgaria, etc. — who the hell cares?

And all this for a flat rate, too. After all, those costs to the john are low for a reason…

This is what’s now at issue in the German parliament: Does Germany want to go on being “Europe’s megabrothel”, attracting criminal elements, sleaze and misery from all over the world, along with the big money? Or does the country want to actually do something for these women beyond lip service — and not just collect taxes from them, like a good state pimp?

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Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Law-Law Land, Uppity Wimmin | 1 Comment

An Ecuadorable win at the Bolivarian Games

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Sabina Becker

sofia-correa-climbing

The first family of Ecuador is a real bunch of overachievers. Not content to be the daughter of a smart, good-looking head of state, El Ecuadorable’s daughter is a leader in her own right…and in a difficult sport, at that:

Sofía Correa, daughter of Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, won a gold medal on Monday in rock-climbing at the Bolivarian Games, which are taking place in Trujillo, Peru.

The medal is the second one for the 19-year-old athlete. Last Saturday, she won bronze in the same discipline.

“My goal was difficulty and I won gold in this and third place in block. For this sport you need technique and resistance. I feel I’ve gone up several levels in the last three months, and I’m very happy and motivated,” Correa said.

With this win, Ecuador stands in third place in the medal rankings, with 53 gold, 50 silver, and 65 bronze, for a total of 168.

Translation mine.

Here are Sofía’s presidential parents, cheering her on:

correas-cheering

And here’s the proud papa, congratulating the golden girl afterwards:

proud-papa-correa

Viva Sofía Correa, ¡carajo!

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Spanish obscenity gets Chinese ideogram

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Sabina Becker

spanish-obscenity

Chinese translator Hai Cheng shows a new Chinese character, graphically depicting a nasty Spanish phrase. Not sure if this article is a joke or not:

In a desperate attempt to adapt to Spanish culture and language, Chinese immigrants have found it necessary to create a new character to represent, via an unique pictogram, the Spanish expression “I shit in your mother’s fucking skull son of a bitch come here if you have balls so I can break your fucking face”.

The new sign, which has required five months of work and the supervision of the best Chinese linguists, has been presented to the press at the Confucius Institute in Barcelona.

“The first character signifies ‘in the ass’ and comes from the ideogram which signifies ‘fuck you’, to which were later added some strokes signifying ‘you have no balls’ and ‘I’m going to kill you’,” explained translator Hai Cheng to the press, pointing out the various aspects of the new pictogram and recognizing that many aspects were lost in translation. The symbol “is not able to embody on paper the authentic threat which is represented by a phrase so complex and full of subtleties as ‘I shit in your mother’s fucking skull son of a bitch come here if you have balls so I can break your fucking face’.”

These works of translation and representation in Chinese of Spanish expressions will allow Chinese immigrants to communicate in their own language phrases which can be heard every day in Spain. “Many of these Chinese citizens go back to their country of origin having learned very long phrases which, in the majority of cases, represent insults or bad-sounding expressions and which, right now, Chinese language and culture are unable to assimilate normally,” the expert explained.

The Confucius Institute announced that now they will begin translation work to find a pictogram which signifies “I will slap the shit out of you so hard, your teeth will do motocross”.

Translation mine.

I don’t doubt that Chinese immigrants have a tougher time than most adapting to Spanish language and culture (and they probably face quite a bit of unsubtle racism, too). But I also can’t help laughing…and wondering if these characters for ugly talk are some kind of a leg-pull. Can anyone help me out here?

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Posted in All the Tea in China, Found in Translation, Isn't That Racist?, The WTF? Files, Under the Name of Spain | 3 Comments

Music for a Sunday: You can have me

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Sabina Becker

The title track off a very gorgeous album. This version’s a bit subdued, but otherwise faithful to the brilliant original.

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Wankers of the Week: WallyWorld’s Turkey Trot

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Sabina Becker

walmart-food-drive.jpg

Crappy weekend, everyone! Well, I guess you heard about WallyWorld, huh? They pay their employees so little that now they’re urging other employees to donate non-perishable food items for them. What do you bet that those canned and boxed foods will end up right back on the shelves, to be resold, all unbeknownst to the generous donors? I wouldn’t put anything past the horrid, greedy Walton clan…or these people either, in no particular order:

1. Boris Fucking Johnson. Forget about taxing the super-rich! The Mad Perambulating Haystack thinks those poor, beleaguered babies should be given tax breaks and free knighthoods, and that we should all stop “bashing” them (like the homeless) for having more money than they know what to do with, and just reward them instead for hoarding it and keeping it out of circulation. Funny, but I don’t recall anyone ever kicking a rich man or setting him afire in a bus shelter, and getting off scot-free. And considering that British Rail is in steep decline since it was privatized, I’d say the rich are NOT holding up their end of that bargain, either. TL; DR: Boris, go home. You’re drunk!

2. Martin Fucking Bashir. Look, we all hate Sarah Fucking Dumbass Palin just as much as YOU do. But pooping in her mouth? Come ON. She is full of shit already! She doesn’t NEED anyone else’s help!

3. John Fucking Hagee. Yarglebargle FALSE TEACHER barglearghle ATHEISTS barglebargle JEWS ANTICHRIST END TIMES arglebarglebarglebarglebargleARGLE! I believe that about sums it up for him this week.

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4. Marco Fucking Rubio. The clown prince of the Teabagger Party is out to clinch his nomination for court jester of US politics, I see. And judging by the homophobia levels, I’d say a little pink tutu-clad skeleton is about due to kick down his closet door any day now.

5. Peggy Fucking Noonan. What? She’s still alive, and still believing in “miracles”, when electricity and powered flight have been a thing for DECADES, and have been perfectly explicable throughout that time, to anyone who’s not a complete fool? And how does someone this dumb end up writing for the Wall Street Urinal, anyway? I know it’s not the smartest paper in the world, but this is pathetic even for them. Someone please pull her plug, already.

6. Elisabeth Fucking Hasselbeck. And the quest to see who can be the dimmest bulb on the string continues! You can be pregnant, or you can be elderly, but you can’t be both. And in any case, she’s lying about Obamacare. Par for the course at FUX Snooze!

7 and 8. Craig Fucking Cobb and Kynan Fucking Dutton. Surprise! They’re terrorists! I’m sure this comes as a terrible shock to y’all. No? Good. Also, they’re under arrest. Ha, ha.

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9. George Fucking Zimmerman. Another week, another wank, another arrest for a domestic disturbance. So what the fuck is new? Oh, and get this: She’s allegedly pregnant! And he tried to choke her just days before! And he tried to make out like SHE was the crazy one, and get HER arrested! And he sent a dirty pic to her daughter! The one good thing to come out of all this is that now, he will no longer be allowed to own guns. A judgment long overdue, of course. (Okay, make that two: His estranged wife finally got to serve him those divorce papers.)

10. Martha Fucking Stewart. The first rule of food porn is to make your shit look appetizing, not to make your appetizers look like shit. Someone please show her where the filters are on Instagram, and how to use them! (And it might also help to tell her to stop dining at trendy places just because they’re trendy; their food is so SAD.)

11. Rob Fucking Ford. And again, Robbo just can’t hold his inner boor…er…IN. He bowled down a city councillor and gave her a fat lip, then went on to assert that he wasn’t a crackhead, AGAIN. If anyone still believes him, please write to me in the comment slot below. I’ve got a lovely bridge in Brooklyn that I’ll sell you for a song! PS: HA ha!

12. Doug Fucking Ford. Meanwhile, Tweedledee comes very touchingly to Tweedledum’s aid, albeit in the usual irony-impaired manner. Get off those crosses, you guys, Habitat for Humanity needs the fucking lumber!

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13. Stuart Fucking Varney. Are old men’s brains inherently chauvinist? Let’s ask this old fart from FUX Snooze.

14. George W. Fucking Bush. Oh look! Dubya’s decided that fake-ranch life is too boring, and that he has to wank in the public sight once more. Awww, how touching. So when do we get to see this war-criminal and environmental nightmare take that perp walk in his orange pajamas? PS: And he weighed in on Robbo, too. Like we really needed him to do that.

15. Dick Fucking Cheney. Meanwhile, the Big Dick lives up to his nick in the biggest way possible…by supporting his bigoted daughter over his lesbian one. Nice to see that buying someone else’s heart hasn’t changed him one bit.

16. Lorenzo Fucking Garcia. Irony-impaired much? Your grandpa was probably one of those “illegals” you want people to make a game of catching, huevón. And for a crappy $25 gift card, too. The cynicism hurts my brain. PS: That quote about dying on one’s feet rather than living on one’s knees? Wasn’t from ANY of the US founders. It’s been attributed to Emiliano Zapata, who was no fucking gringo. And then there’s Che Guevara, who actually DID die that way. ¡Eres un idiota!

17. Jason Fucking Kenney. Why?

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That’s why. Maybe his staffers SHOULD be unionized. Imagine the amount of shit they must have had to take from this little snotball.

18. Kanye Fucking West. So, this is what that “creative genius” meant when he called himself that. A song cobbled inharmoniously together out of other songs would be bad enough. But wait! It’s overlaid with him rapping stiltedly about the ol’ wham-bam, complete with pull-out ejaculation à la pornographie. Plus a lot of other truly cynical shit that makes me wonder how a song ostensibly about love could be so unlovely, a rap about sex could be so unsexy, and the accompanying video, which I’m guessing aspires to images of natural grandeur and freedom, could end up looking tackier than one of those murals that sleazy ’70s guys used to airbrush on the sides of their Chevy fuck-trucks. And the pièce de résistance? No, not naked Kim Fucking Kardashian (although she’s in there too, alas.) No, it’s those oh-so-creative and ingenious diaper-bum pants he’s wearing. Did he borrow them from the Bieb? Looks like it.

19. Erik Fucking Prince. He now thinks that the War on Terra has gone too far? I guess he must not be making much money off it since Blackwater (or whatever other name it’s going by now) became so notorious. Or maybe he just doesn’t like that black dude in the Oval Office. But whatever it is, I find it hilariously ironic that he feels this way.

20. Robert Fucking Ritchie. Oh look! A conservative Catholic group with ties to Latin American fascism is trying to convince us all that the recent tornadoes in Illinois have something to do with same-sex marriage. If that were true, Canada would have way more twisters than the US, since we’ve had same-sex marriage nationwide, and for longer. But we don’t, and that’s down to where we sit on the North American landmass, nothing more. How about studying some geography and learning how air masses work, instead of embarrassing yourselves with unscientific gobbledygook?

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21. Valerio Fucking Moscariello. Oh noes! Robbo just re-embarrassed TO all over again…this time for hiring a fitness guru who got convicted of illegal steroid trafficking. Tweedledum sure knows how to pick ’em!

22 and 23. Larry Fucking Pratt and Alex Fucking Jones. Is anyone besides me struck by the irony of two of the biggest raving gun nuts on the planet calling their opponents “inherently violent” and blaming THEM for mass shootings? Oh good, so it’s NOT just me. Ha, ha.

24. Larry Fucking Klayman. Oops! Looks like that little exercise in high treason wasn’t as popular as Loopy Larry had hoped. And the crowd that did show was predictably pathetic. Ha, ha.

25. Bob Fucking Barr. See above, and add an asterisk with “Dustbins of History” next to it.

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26. Donnie Fucking Snook. Y’know, I agree with this pervert. An 18-year prison sentence for sexual abuse of children and kiddie porn IS unreasonable…unreasonably short. And dude? I’m really sorry it’s gonna interfere with your diddlin’ and molestin’ and all, but you’re just gonna have to do the time. After all, you did the crime!

27. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. As usual, the Pigman can dish it out, but he can’t take it. When a caller tried to bring up the old cigar-box-full-of-cabbage incident, El Rushbo cut him off. Some freedom of speech you got goin’ there, Rusty!

28. Trey Fucking Radel. Speaking of dishing-out-but-not-taking, how about this one? Busted for coke in DC after voting in favor of making Florida welfare recipients get tested for drugs. Nice to see that knife cut the other way for a change. PS: Figures that he likes to vacation in Colombia, too.

29. Stephen Fucking Harper. Oh hai! Remember that senate scandal, and all that money going missing for no apparent reason, straight into the pockets of a bunch of double-dipping spongers? Remember that guy with the “integrity”, the one who cut all those illicit cheques? Well, guess what: It goes all the way up to the PMO! Just as we all have long suspected. Remember, Harpo is a control freak…and no one in SupposiTory Land so much as farts without his say-so. And now we know just how true that is.

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30. Elisabeth Fucking Hasselbeck. Calling out racists “undermines racism”? Um, yeah, dipshit. That’s the whole idea. Now the question is, why are YOU defending racism?

31. Levi Fucking Weatherly. In case anyone out there still believes that being a parent makes you a better person: No. No, it fucking DOESN’T. Defending bullies who pick on disabled kids and upload cruel videos about it is just about as low as you can sink.

32. Brian Fucking Lowry. Listen, you incompetent, antiquated asshole: If Sarah Silverman wants to do raunchy comedy, she damn well has a right to it. She’s the funniest woman alive, after Margaret Cho. And she doesn’t have to answer to any prissy ‘winger TV critic for ANYTHING, motherfucker. Your views are what’s limiting, not her material. And it’s guys like you who hold women back, and we are sick and tired of you dumb turds trying to tell us how to do our jobs. Especially if, like Sarah, we’re at the top of our field. And awesome enough to come up with material like this:

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33. Marissa Fucking Mayer. Aaaaaaand THIS is why I don’t want anything to do with the whole “Lean In” thing. It requires a subscription to crapitalism, and do you have any idea how much that worthless shit COSTS? Add to that the fact that most of us (and especially those who work at Wally World) will never see in our lifetimes a fraction of the amount that she makes in a year, and it’s even more insulting. To anyone thinking a female tech CEO will change the face of business, now you know. She won’t. She can’t solve the problem, because she IS the problem. And being a woman will always take a backseat to crapitalism when you get that high up.

34. Jack Fucking Cashill. Oh noes! George Fucking Zimmerman’s violence and general dumbfuckery are a liberal conspiracy! O RLY? Then why is HE the one doing all that, and not some liberal?

35. Gordon Fucking Klingenschmitt. How do you know when you’re being effective against some loopy preacher-man’s general loopiness? When he keeps trying to take down your YouTube account for exposing his shit verbatim, as John Jacob Jingleheimer here keeps doing.

36. Erik Fucking Rush. Honestly, dude, why don’t you just go ahead and believe in “chemtrails”, or the Flat Earth, or something like that? Those silly theories make about as much sense as the bat guano you’re pushing.

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37. Kayla Fucking Mendoza. Drunk driving causing death is a crime. Tweeting “2 drunk 2 care” beforehand (along with various other dumb brags about your sloppy druggy drinky lifestyle — and, ironically, “Can’t deal with people that don’t have their shit together” that very morning) is a wank. Can’t wait to hear what she pleads in court; my money’s on YOLO. #stupidgit

38. Thomas Fucking Paprocki. He’s a terrible homophobe, a terrible cleric, and an all-around terrible person. But damned if that outfit he wore to the totally fucking useless exorcism he staged wasn’t fucking FABULOUS. Do you suppose this hipster realized how ironic he was being there?

39 and 40. The Fucking Koch Bros. Oops, they’ve done it again…created crapaganda for their widdle “prosperity” Kaffeeklatsch, using fake “disgruntled” voters who aren’t even from where they claim to be from. Turns out, they’re actors. This is getting to be something of a pattern for them. Obamacare must be more successful than we’ve been led to believe, if these guys are hauling out the big guns to try to shoot it down.

41. Ted Fucking Falk. Claiming a gay kid staged an act of homophobia? In rural Manitoba, where fucking rednecks are dime a dozen and that sort of thing doesn’t need to be staged, EVER? That’s a new low, even for SupposiTories. Oh, and weaseling out of giving the press an explanation…yeah, that’s a nice touch, too. Good thing you’re running for Icky Vic’s old seat, which is safe, barring a huge outbreak of sudden decency. But hey, it’s rural Manitoba, where fucking rednecks are dime a dozen…so don’t pay ME any mind. I’ll just be keeping my beady eye out for more Falk-wanks in future. I’m sure I won’t be disappointed!

42. Karl Fucking Vick. Odious generalization is odious. And racist racist is racist.

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43. Laura Fucking Ingraham. Speaking of racist racists and xenophobic xenophobes, Laura Fucking Ingraham, ladies ‘n’ gentlemen. Ain’t she somethin’, making fun of foreign accents, all clever-like and sophisticated as she is? Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk.

44. Chris Fucking Brown. No woman is safe from this turd. Not even his own mother.

45. Russell Fucking Moore. So, lemme see if I got this straight: Disobedient wives are “preaching false gospel”, even when they’re not actually standing in a pulpit or anything? And marital closeness undermines biblical teachings? Well, then, I guess the logical thing to do is just chuck those biblical teachings, since all they ever do is wreck marriages by forcing men and women into molds they don’t necessarily fit. Problem solved!

46. Glenn Fucking Beck. No, JFK was NOT a teabagger. He was pretty much everything that the fucking teabags are AGAINST. How does someone so stupid manage to live? And where did that straitjacket go…?

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47. John Fucking Stossel. Well, look who’s sunk to a whole new depth of dumbth. Stache-dude claims to have “proved” that the homeless are scammers? Actually, all he’s proved is what we already know about FUX Snooze and himself…that THEY are the scammers. And that they really shouldn’t be enabled. Time to quit watching, and time to boycott their advertisers, folks.

48. Sydney Fucking Leathers. Oh, EW. That is all.

49. Michael Fucking Bloomberg. Bloomy’s mayoralty may be drawing to an ignominious close, but the wank goes on…and on…and on…and ON…

50. Elizabeth Fucking May. She says she’s “not going to pander” to people who support a real peace solution for the Middle East? Um, Lizzie…you’re fucking PANDERING. To some of the very worst, at that. Because Bibi Fucking Netanyahu is not the only person building walls in Israel. It’s like they completely forgot the lessons of their own history.

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And finally, to all the fucking assholes out there who think the following are good ideas:

Black Fucking Friday

The Fucking Knockout Game

Invisible Fucking Panties

Justin Fucking Bieber’s latest opus creepius, and

Picking up mentally ill women and using their condition as a way into their pants.

Congratulations, you fuckers are everything that’s wrong with the world right now.

Good night, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | 1 Comment

Why the JFK assassination still matters today

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Sabina Becker

50-years-enough

It was 50 years ago today, and a few years before I was born.

It happened in Dealey Plaza, Dallas — and it could happen again, anywhere, anytime.

A president was shot and killed, and a state governor badly wounded. The incident was captured on numerous cameras, many of them in the hands of ordinary citizens. A nation was traumatized.

A so-called “lone nut” was apprehended, then killed before he could have his day in court. The killer too was killed, by lung cancer, even though he didn’t smoke.

All three of the dead men — the president, his accused assassin, and the assassin’s killer — died at the same Dallas hospital, Parkland Memorial. And in a stranger coincidence still, both the president and the accused assassin were pronounced dead in the same trauma room, by the same group of doctors.

And all three of these men died, if not of the same cause, then definitely for the same cause.

And that cause has been covered up, smothered, and suppressed for the last fifty years. The suppression began the very day the president was shot in Dealey Plaza. Witnesses had their cameras confiscated, their films removed by nameless men claiming to be federal agents, locked away, hidden from the public. Some of these “agents” descended within minutes of the shooting. Everything from Polaroids to home movies fell into their hands, in many cases never to be seen again.

The Dallas police took statements from dozens of eyewitnesses, but the Warren Commission never called those people. Or, if it did, it actively ignored the parts of their testimony that contradicted the lone shooter/magic bullet hypothesis, which had been formulated in advance: that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and that one bullet — miraculously intact, recovered from a stretcher at Parkland Hospital — did all the lethal damage to President Kennedy and nearly killed Governor Connally as well.

J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, far from truly investigating, was involved in covering up and ignoring anything that didn’t fit into the official story: three shots, one rifle, from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Never mind that the bolt-action rifle allegedly used to fire those shots was old and crappy, with a misaligned scope, nor that it couldn’t have fired off so many rounds in six and a half seconds. Never mind that the best marksmen in the country couldn’t pull off such a feat, much less a mediocre shot like Oswald. Never mind that none of Oswald’s handprints even appeared on the gun until after the FBI had paid a mysterious visit to the funeral home where Oswald’s body was being prepared for burial. The story was decided upon, it was agreed, it stood. Period. End of it.

And anyone who pointed out the flaws in the story? Well, they got suppressed too. One way or another. Some were killed in mysterious “accidents”. Some were murdered, but the cause was listed as “suicide”. Others were pressured to keep silent. Still others were ridiculed, pilloried in the media. The few who stuck their necks out, like New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, who dared to prosecute a conspirator with local connections, found themselves in the crosshairs of the character assassins known as the national news media.

After all, it’s one thing to formulate an assassination plot. It’s another to make sure that the secret is kept for decades, until all the principal players are dead and the nation’s outrage is tamped down to the point where no one but a raving lunatic would care anymore. That way, the culprits are no longer subject to prosecution, no longer liable for damages, no longer accountable to the laws of state and country. And the public, pacified, won’t demand the answers that they know are still owing — or the justice that the culprits have no intention of giving them.

Why else do you suppose that so much crucial evidence from 50 years ago is still under wraps today, and will remain so for another 20 years? The official excuse is “national security”, but since the event is no longer current, that excuse doesn’t wash. The Cuban Missile Crisis is history. The Soviet Union broke up. The Cold War ended, and the Berlin Wall came down. If the assassination was indeed a communist plot to do away with communism’s #1 enemy — and it wasn’t — then why the ongoing secrecy? Wasn’t that national-security motive dead and buried, too? Why not release all the records, unredacted, and finally let the public know what really happened that day in Dallas?

“National security” is an excuse that covers a multitude of sins. It has covered everything from the JFK assassination to the CIA’s “ghost flights”, where people were kidnapped and flown to secret locations for torture. It is still being used to justify the NSA’s wiretaps, e-mail interceptions, and everything else that interferes in the lives of ordinary citizens, not only in the United States, but all over the world. It is a travesty. It is being used to justify things that are simply not justifiable under any circumstances: wars, murders, rapes, tortures, kidnappings, disappearances. The most egregious political, social, legal and moral violations are all justified under the rubric of “national security”. And have been for decades.

And fifty years after the most blatant coup d’état in US history, it’s still being used to cover THAT festering sore, too. That, and all the fuckery that followed.

Had JFK lived, the Vietnam War would have ended in 1965, not 1975. The draw-down had begun a month before the assassination. Already the first Vietnam troops, a thousand of them, had returned to US shores just a few days before shots rang out in Dealey Plaza. Hell, even JFK’s own nephew recently attested that his uncle was a “peace at any price” president!

There would not have been a blockade against Cuba still in place to this day, either; we now know that JFK was putting out feelers toward a peace agreement with Fidel Castro, and that both men were using a number of unofficial envoys to facilitate the delicate process. One was the noted TV journalist, Lisa Howard, who interviewed Che Guevara when he came to New York to address the United Nations. And Fidel Castro himself expressed sadness at JFK’s death, which is awfully hard to imagine him doing for someone who only months before was trying to have him killed. Unless, of course, it wasn’t JFK, but another three-initial culprit…the CIA.

And it makes sense to blame the CIA. JFK’s disgust at them is well documented, as is his threat to break the organization into a thousand pieces. The Vietnam war is their baby, they profited immensely from it (as did the Military-Industrial Complex), and their dirty tricks abound in it. And their penchant for dirty tricks still continues; every fascist coup in Latin America has their pugmarks on it, and every political assassination, too. Che’s capture and execution in Bolivia was the work of CIA agents with tradecraft honed in Vietnam. The entire Miami “Cuban exile” community is rotten with CIA associations; there is not a single anti-Castro group that was not founded, financed, supported and trained (often in the use of war weaponry) by the “Company”. In fact, JFK narrowly missed being assassinated in Miami, just days before Dallas; had it not been for local police alert to conspiratorial activity, who informed the Secret Service and caused the cancellation of his motorcade (he was ultimately helicoptered in), we would be marking this anniversary on the 18th, not today, and assassination researchers would be descending on Miami, not Dallas.

The CIA are not above associating with the worst of the human dregs we call the Mafia, either; Colonel Fletcher Prouty, who retired from US army intelligence in 1964, publicly stated that it was CIA and military intelligence procedure to use organized criminals to do “jobs” — that is, assassinations — anyplace it wouldn’t look good for US personnel to get directly involved.

What place would it look worse than Dallas?

And yes, there were plenty of mafiosi who were only too happy to get in on the action where JFK’s assassination was concerned. Bobby Kennedy, as US Attorney General, had made it his mission to break up the mob, just as his older brother had sworn to do with the CIA. Carlos Marcello and Santos Trafficante were two who stood directly to gain from a high-level assassination. They ran sleazy nightclubs, strip joints, bawdyhouses and gambling casinos; when Fidel Castro shut their establishments down and kicked them out of Cuba, they landed in Miami with bugs in their ears. And they made sure that all of New Orleans caught their fleas, too; there’s hardly an establishment there, to this day, that isn’t grubby with the grease of Cuban mafia hands. Their tentacles stretched all the way out to Texas…and specifically Dallas. Jack Ruby, a former Chicago mobster and errand boy for Al Capone, was one of their low-level members. And all of them, to a man, hated the Brothers Castro for cleaning up Cuba, and the Brothers Kennedy, too…for trying to clean up Washington. And Miami. And New Orleans. And…you name it.

To this day, the CIA and the mob are ongoing problems for the US government. It’s quite ironic, then, that the whole “national security” eyewash is actually protecting them, while leaving ordinary citizens exposed…and the national security of every other nation on Earth in jeopardy. Because the empire, the Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Organized-Crime Complex, did not die along with JFK; it only grew.

Why does the JFK assassination still matter today? Because it is still, in fact, an unsolved crime — the hottest “cold” case in the world. But more than that, because the same pernicious forces that plotted it are still alive and all too well, even if the individual players are almost all dead. Because the deception and the cover-up are still continuing, and the propaganda offensive has not ended; the major media remain complicit in the deception of the people. And because as long as all these things continue, there can be no justice, no truth and no peace…anywhere.

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Posted in Angry Pacifist Speaks Her Mind, Crapagandarati, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off on Why the JFK assassination still matters today

Rob Ford, the movie

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Sorry for all the preponderance of Robbo lately, but I just had to post this:

So much has been made lately about the resemblance between Robbo and the late Chris Farley (who shambled offstage before Robbo bumblefucked in from stage right, if memory serves). So in a way, this was inevitable. And dang if it wasn’t also prescient as hell…

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch | Comments Off on Rob Ford, the movie

Jon Stewart does it again

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Sabina Becker

Once more, here is why Jon Stewart is the king of late-night comedy, and why The Daily Show is better at reporting the news than the “real” news media are. Can I nominate HIM for mayor of Toronto?

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Isn't It Ironic? | Comments Off on Jon Stewart does it again

Oh shit, are we doomed?

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Sabina Becker

jorvik-horn

A performer at the Jorvik Viking Centre in York, England, plays a primitive tuba found in the ancient Viking part of town. According to Norse myth, the sounding of a certain specific horn heralds doom:

The horn belonged to the Norse god, Heimdallr, who was said to blow the mythical Gjallerhorn to warn that Ragnarok – the Viking apocalypse – will take place in 100 days. Experts are predicting the end of the world will take place on 22 February 2014, coinciding with the grand finale of the 30th JORVIK Viking Festival in the city of York.

“Ragnarok is the ultimate landmark in Viking mythology, when the gods fall and die, so this really is an event that should not be underestimated,” comments Danielle Daglan director of the JORVIK Viking Festival. “In the last couple of years, we’ve had predictions of the Mayan apocalypse, which passed without incident, and numerous other dates where the end of the world has been pencilled in by seers, fortune tellers and visionaries, but the sound of the horn is possibly the best indicator yet that the Viking version of the end of the world really will happen on 22 February next year.”

According to the legends of Ragnarok, the god Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir and the other ‘creator’ gods will fall, before the earth is born anew for its human population.

As scary and sensational as that may sound, I think this is actually just a promotional stunt for the Jorvik festival, which kicks off early next year. After all, the real Gjallerhorn (“Yelling Horn”, or “Loud Sounding Horn”) was not a physical trumpet, but a mythical one…and the player was not just any bearded hipster, but the God Heimdallr himself.

In other words, I think we’re still safe.

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Posted in Cool Beans, Good to Know, Merry Old England, Scandinavian Smorgasbord, The WTF? Files | Comments Off on Oh shit, are we doomed?

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 37

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Sabina Becker

gloria-torcat

Gloria Torcat, councilwoman in Arismendi, Nueva Esparta, was beaten up on Saturday by two assailants on motorbikes.

Oh, that Venezuelan opposition. So unified. So democratic. So totally above beating people up. They keep telling us that’s for those nasty, rotten Chavistas. And then THIS happens:

After having suffered a beating to her face and various parts of her body, and making a denouncement before the Body of Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations (CICPC), councilwoman Gloria Torcat held a press conference to give details of the case.

Torcat announced that she would be retiring from the Democratic Unity coalition (MUD) and that in future, she would be supporting Luis Díaz, candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela for mayor of Arismendi.

Local media are waiting for a statement at any time from Richard Fermín, mayor or Arismendi municipality and former running mate of the victim.

Torcat, widow of Francisco Torcat, who was founder of the Primero Justicia party in Nueva Esparta state, was ambushed by two motorcyclists who took advantage of her being a woman and alone, and was beaten mercilessly. Later, the assailants fled.

In a telephone call to the Venezuelan News Agency, AVN, Torcat said that on Saturday she was threatened by a member of Fermín’s team, Luis “Tuti” Méndez, and that in the afternoon, she was ambushed by the two motorcyclists, who beat her about the face and arms.

“I was on my way to an activity when I was intercepted by two bikers, who immediately hit me in the face, and when I tried to cover my face, they hit my arms, and as they were attacking me, they said that I needed to learn to shut up,” Torcat said.

Translation mine.

Say, wouldn’t it be funny if Chavistas did that? Except that they never do, which is why Gloria’s changing sides to the one where the integrity is. And the humanity. Even though her late husband was a local founder of the Primero Golpistas…and she a running mate of the current oppo mayor, she still doesn’t feel that remaining loyal is worth it, because THIS is what they do to their own. And she’s taken it to the Venezuelan equivalent of the FBI, which spells serious trouble for the aptly acronymmed MUD.

Hey Majunche, this is why your side keeps losing. And why even putsches and coups can’t improve their situation for shit. It’s because they have literally nothing to offer, even to their own leaders.

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Posted in Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic? | Comments Off on The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 37