Henrique Capriles Radonski: Neither victim nor victor

Remember this picture? The lamestream media up here don’t want you to. According to them, this silly poser, who pretended to be a Communist while in China for the Beijing Olympics, is The Man Who Will Beat Hugo Chávez, assuming that the allegedly rampant anti-semitism in Venezuela doesn’t make him the victim of a one-man pogrom before the campaign wraps up. But while the increasingly irrelevant Wiesenthalers and ADL soil themselves to no end over Henrique Capriles Radonski, and over the horrible “pig” insult allegedly lobbed at his head by you-know-who (in the presence of Sean Penn, no less!), here’s the unglamorous truth about his poll numbers:

A recent poll of presidential voting intentions by International Consulting Services (ICS) puts Hugo Chavez at 58.2% support and Capriles Radonski at 34.5%.

Ooooooo, that’s gotta hurt.

And just for good measure, here’s how Venezuelans really feel about socialism:

A January study by polling firm International Consulting Services (ICS) has shown that 53% of Venezuelans think that the kind of socialism promoted by the current president Hugo Chavez is a political and economic system that guarantees the development of the country. Meanwhile, the same polling organisation found if the 7 October presidential elections were held tomorrow Chavez would be re-elected with 58.2% of the vote.

Juan Scorza, director of ICS, said in a television interview that “the belief that this is a positive system for the country has been reinforced,” and pointed out that only 21% believe that capitalism is the system that would guarantee development for the country.

“Between socialism and capitalism, it is clear Venezuelans prefer socialism,” he stated. With regard to social programs, or missions, Venezuelans gave a positive appraisal of 80%.

“This concept of socialism is that all recent [government] measures, like the Law on Fair Costs and Prices, new missions, and protection to workers are creating an environment in which there is collective benefit and that’s how people perceive it,” he said.

As for problems, the director highlighted that 52.9% of Venezuelans see insecurity as the main problem in the country, followed by corruption and inflation.

“Nonetheless, [the perception of] insecurity as a problem has fallen in intensity. In October, it was at 60.2%,” he added.

That all translates to bad news for Capriles, who, like all the oppos, has been capitalizing on the “capitalism good, Venezuelan crime rates bad” mantra that these unoriginal toadies keep repeating, on orders of their gurus in Washington and Miami. Not only is he WAY behind Chavecito in the polls, with no hope of ever catching him (unless Diebold hacks the Venezuelan voting machines), even his platform is out of date. And his weak “centre-left” pose amid a “unity table” comprised of old right-wingers, fascists and putschists, who are in fact far from united (much less behind HIM!), can’t stand up to the popularity of 21st Century Socialism, either.

And just to add insult to injury, there’s this:

In reports published by the USA State Department on Venezuela and published by Wikileaks, Capriles was linked to the assault on the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, and as a suspect in the assassination of the Venezuelan Prosecutor, Danilo Anderson.

The documents demonstrate the complacency of the USA Embassy in Caracas towards this leader of the Primero Justicia Party of fascist bent and whose role in the assault to the Cuban Embassy and other illicit activities has been censured in the text.

These documents show that the USA Embassy not only recognizes Capriles, who is now the governor of the state of Miranda, but also offers him cooperation and the many paragraphs that are blacked out by the censors in Washington reveal collaborations that is beyond what they are prepared to confess.

On April 12, 2002, during the most tense hours of the coup d’etat, the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba was assaulted by a group of extreme right demonstrators that were led by two individuals identified in Venezuela to terrorist acts against Cuba, they are Salvador Romani and Ricardo Koesling. These two were soon after joined by Capriles and the former commissar of the DISIP (former secret police), the assassin, Henry Lopez Sisco.

They cut the electricity and water supply to the diplomatic headquarters, they destroyed the vehicles of the diplomats and they surrounded the embassy so that no one could leave it. Capriles Radonsky was caught on film by the Venezuelan TV stations climbing a ladder and jumping over the embassy fence, then enter the embassy and threatening the Ambassador of Cuba in Venezuela, German Sanchez Otero, with more violence if he did not give up the Venezuelan officials whom they thought were hidden in the Embassy.

On that same day, April 12, Capriles — who was then mayor of the municipality of Baruta where the Cuban Embassy was located- not only refused to take measures to stop acts of violence, but witnessing on site the violence, insisted on “inspecting” the Embassy, something completely against international conventions, and then made provocative statements.

Capriles Radonski was also an accomplice in the arbitrary detention of Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, then Minister of Justice and the Interior and took part in the illegal sacking of his home.

And this is the innocent victim of an anti-semitic “pig” smear?

Well, here’s the funny part: I searched for that speech where Chavecito allegedly called this putschist a cochino, which is the actual Venezuelan term for pig, and came up with nada! The terrible insult in question is majunche, which doesn’t have anything to do with unkosher pork. It means “of inferior quality, shoddy, mediocre”. And anyone who hangs with fascists, is NOT Jewish by religion (Capriles, Polish-Jewish grandparents notwithstanding, is a practicing Catholic who makes a big show of wearing his rosaries in public), and uses the “I’m a victim of anti-semitism” card when it’s obvious that they are not a victim of anything but their own delusions of grandeur and persecution…is of inferior quality, shoddy, and mediocre, all right.

With the poll numbers to prove it.

Stupid (Anti-)Sex Tricks: The American Lie League, and other hilarious crapagandroids

Need a good laugh tonight? Here ya go:

Mmmmmm, penis cupcakes and vagina macaroons! Yummy!

Jezebel calls this “the most hilariously lewd thing you’ll ever see”, and they’re not far from the truth. This hysterical video inadvertently gives away the makers’ own creepy fetishes. Calling Planned Parenthood a pusher of sex-as-drugs-to-children, and then offering up graphic evidence of the “paraphernalia” while claiming that PPFA is sex-obsessed?

BTW, the “children” for whose consumption that stuff is are college-aged, meaning they’re legally adults, and therefore, old enough to consent, or at least make up their own minds about what they’re about to, um, CONSUME. Which means that the Junior Anti-Sex League of the United States of Amnesia really needs to un-bunch its collective panties a bit. I took a safer-sex workshop at university myself, but it did not lead to instant promiscuity, nor did it turn me into an insatiable sex addict. I did go home with a handful of condoms and some reassuring ideas on how to make sex fun, and they stood me in good stead during my first serious relationship…much later. I hear that’s not an uncommon thing for young adults partaking of sex-ed activities on university campuses.

But the Junior Anti-Sex League aren’t the only ones with wadded underwear giving them a perma-wedgie this week. The Concern-Trolling Women for Amnesia were also out in force, calling Planned Parenthood a mafia today:

It’s not a stretch to say that Planned Parenthood’s tactics to force the Susan G. Komen Foundation to restore their funding were no less than a Mafia-style shakedown of a charity whose only purpose is to help prevent and treat breast cancer.

So much bullshit in just one paragraph, and so little time. The Komen Foundation’s purpose goes way beyond prevention and treatment of breast cancer. In fact, I’d say that was not its purpose at all. Its real purpose, it seems, is to funnel vast amounts of well-meaning people’s money into profitable corporate coffers, and to pinkwash carcinogenic polluters. And, oh yeah, to shake lots of money from cancer survivors, their family and friends into Nancy Brinker’s, Karen Handel’s, and who knows who else’s very right-wing, not terribly pro-woman pockets. (Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing the old “abortion causes breast cancer” lie that’s been long debunked.)

BTW, that was good for a spot on my weekly wankapedia, too. Look for it Saturday night.

Would sure be funny if both these crapaganda groups got slapped with a libel lawsuit, eh?

Never Cry Wolf (just throw strychnine)

This…is unbefuckinglievable. This is the sort of shit that would have been done 50 years ago. It’s also the sort of shit Canada isn’t supposed to be doing anymore. And yet, this is happening right now, and for the worst of all conceivable reasons:

Late last week, internal documents went public showing Canada is fretting over its sullied reputation for unfettered fossil fuel development, while resorting to poisoning wolves rather than fixing the problem. NWF released a paper today showing tar sands, oil and gas development in Canada is contributing to the decline in caribou herds. Rather than improve environmental practices to protect and restore caribou habitat, Canadian wildlife officials are poisoning wolves with strychnine-laced bait. The news comes as Alberta and Canadian officials scramble to address environmental monitoring failures that are wreaking havoc up north.

The highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal would move this Canadian dirty oil through the heartland of the U.S. to export, making the U.S. complicit in causing excruciating wildlife culling.

Strychnine progresses painfully from muscle spasms to convulsions to suffocation over a period of hours. The NWF paper says the poison will also put at risk animals like raptors, wolverines and cougars that eat the poisoned bait or scavenge on the carcasses of poisoned wildlife.

Great. So we’re now just poisoning all carnivores and scavengers indiscriminately. And this is for what? So that tar-sands development can go ahead unimpeded. And so a bunch of Harpo’s cronies down in Texas can get their damn dirty oil.

But what bugs me most is the stinking hypocrisy of it all. It’s not like the Harper Government™ seriously gives a rat’s ass for caribou. Unless, of course, that rat’s ass is loaded with nasty poison that does nasty things, and is actually banned in its liquid form for that very reason:

Strychnine is an extremely toxic alkoloid that results in muscular convulsions and eventually leads to death through asphyxia or exhaustion.

Strychnine was banned by the Canadian Federal Government in 1993 due to the devastating effects it had on non-target animals. Gophers were not the only animals to ingest the substance; birds, waterfowl, foxes, rabbits, and even dogs and cats suffered the horrible fate of being poisoned by Strychnine. Gophers that were killed by the poison were often consumed by predators such as raptors, coyotes, and foxes, poisoning them as well.

Of course, it’s easier in the short term to strychnine a bunch of critters (be it ground squirrels, wolves or what have you) than it is to develop long-term strategies for safe, successful coexistence. And those in charge of the tar sands aren’t thinking in the long term at all, except maybe how to maximize their profits until the dirty oil runs out, while maintaining that squeaky-clean image they don’t deserve. Meaning, the animals are the ones that will bear the brunt of their short-sightedness, and their selfishness.

We’re always blaming the wolf. It’s an easy scapegoat, thanks to its fearsome nature, which we like to forget is the genetic basis for every domestic dog that ever lived. So of course, to blame it for the decline of the caribou — a decline for which we humans are in fact the real culprit — is nothing new. We went through all this 50 years ago!

I can only imagine what Farley Mowat would say.

How evil triumphed in Argentina and British Columbia

edmund-burke-shirt.jpg

Riddle me this: What does this…

“It wasn’t one or two cases, or one or two officers involved, but many, thus there was a pattern, a plan” to take away those babies from their biological families which they considered “non trustworthy or communists”, said Elliott Abrams former US Assistant Secretary of State.

He added that during his post as Under Secretary for Human Rights issues, from 1982 to 1985, he “does not recall any case” of systematic stealing of political prisoners babies in any part of the world as the one implemented by the Argentine military.

“It was the worst of all cases” among all dictatorships and military regimes in those years both in Latin America and in Asia said the former Reagan administration officer who added that it was his task “to advance the human rights issue in those countries”.

Abrams made the statements on a video conference from Washington as a witness in a case in a federal court in Buenos Aires. He also revealed that in talks with then Argentine ambassador Lucio García del Solar he suggested that “the Church could help to solve the matter”.  

The issue was “very difficult to address not only for the military but for any future democratic government” said Abrams who described Garcia del Solar “not as a representative from the dictatorship but rather as a member of the future civilian government and deeply democratic”.

…have in common with this?

Mainstream media like CBC, The Tyee, Vancouver Sun, and Seattle’s weekly, The Stranger, easily uncovered the fact that former Port Coquitlam Mayor, Scott Young, and hundreds of other people had attended events at Piggy’s Palace, the party venue operating for several years at Pickton’s pig farm. I asked some of those Vancouver rock/punk bands playing in the 1990s what they’d heard about Piggy’s Palace. I was relieved to hear my friends say they had refused to play there because, as one said “even though we’d played some shitty places, we’d heard Piggy’s was totally sketchy bikers, blow, you name it.”

Others describe Piggy’s Palace as “rough,” “very very badass.” One man interviewed in 2003 by The Stranger said: “There were lots of women, who looked like hookers…. The party spilled all over the grounds and there were people in the house and in the trailer doing the wild thing. I recall walking by a shack with a 40-watt light bulb hanging over the door and machinery was running inside. Here, I got a death chill. The hairs raised on the back of my neck and my feet froze to the ground. I didn’t want to be there anymore, so I left and walked home.”

This is what is most chilling to me: literally hundreds of people, from East Van rockers to off duty cops to the Mayor of Port Coquitlam, knew that Piggy’s Palace and its proprietors were trouble – specifically trouble for prostituted women. Yet the venue remained in operation for years without intervention by neighbours, police, or concerned members of the public.

Former Mayor Scott Young’s disregard for women is already public, evident in his guilty plea for an assault on his ex common-law partner and for breaching a no-contact order intended to protect her. But what about the bands who decided that, despite the “rough crowd” and the rule to “check your knives and other weapons at the door,” playing repeated gigs at Piggy’s Palace was worth it because the money was good? A few Lower Mainland bands’ websites still list their Piggy’s Palace gigs in their band bio. One even has the gall to highlight the notoriety of the Pickton case.

At first glance it seems like the two stories aren’t related, does it? But look a little closer. Baby-stealing Argentine fascists and hooker-killing Canadian misogynists have, in fact, a great deal in common. Starting with a reckless disregard for such trifles as humanity, the rule of law, and common decency, and extending all the way to deviousness, and a willingness to enlist outside authorities in covering up for them.

And cover up for them, the outside authorities did. The RCMP as much as covered up for Robert Fucking Pickton. And the US governments of Richard Fucking Nixon and Ronald Fucking Reagan were more than happy to cover up for the Argentine junta. Those were governments composed of nothing but evil men.

The government of Jimmy Carter, who was and still is certainly a good man, was not so willing; it sent an investigator to Argentina instead — a serious one, not a sham — and what she found was utterly vile:

Doesn’t what Pat Derian describes sound an awful lot like what happened at Pickton’s farm? Women disappeared, tortured, horribly murdered, sexually violated, fed to animals even. Pictures of the missing could paper entire walls. And for years, nothing got done about it. Even though the evil was widely known, and secretly whispered about by those in the know.

Yeah, tell me again that they had nothing in common!

Anyone who thinks fascism and misogyny are not somehow related is a damned fool. The RCMP in BC not only knew what was going on, one of their own actually warned Pickton that there was an investigation coming. This gave the killer a chance to cover his tracks and impede the investigation. They didn’t give a damn that women were dying by the dozen at Piggy’s Palace; those women were “only” prostitutes, and probably drug addicts as well — the flotsam of the streets of Vancouver. And the cops were no doubt as eager to be rid of them (after having used them, too, I bet) as the Argentine junta was to be rid of “communists”, “subversives”, and anyone who didn’t meet their criteria for “upstanding citizens”. So they looked the other way, with a wink and a nod, while Pickton killed women, ground up their bodies, and fed those precious pearls to the swine.

Edmund Burke was wrong about what it takes for evil to triumph. It wasn’t good men who did nothing. It was evil men — venal, opportunistic, complicit, cowardly — who knowingly looked the other way. That’s why Piggy’s Palace and the Dirty Wars claimed all the victims they did.

Fortuna Silver = Nasty Ass Honey Badger

Yes, it’s true. Don’t believe me? Watch this…

And then read this, and tell me if you don’t think so. Here, I’ll even excerpt a few key passages for you…

Vancouver-based mining company Fortuna Silver says it has nothing to do with the shooting death of a protester in a town near the company’s mine site in Mexico.

Police have arrested the alleged shooter implicated in the death of Bernardo Mendez Vazquez, who was shot last week during a protest that news reports have linked to opposition to the gold and silver mine.

The shooting took place in the town of San Jose del Progreso, where the mine is the chief employer.

The town and mine in the southwestern state of Oaxaca have been the sites of past conflicts involving groups who say the mine is an environmental threat to the arid region’s scarce water supply.

But Fortuna Silver president Jorge Ganoza said “misinformation” is behind media reports tying his company to the violence, which also left another protester with a leg wound.

“We, as a company, and our team in Oaxaca are saddened by these senseless and continued acts of violence in the town of San Jose, related to a long-standing political struggle for local power,” Ganoza said.

“It is not the first incident of this nature in the last few years. It is in no way related to our activities or involves company personnel, and we really hope that the people of San Jose, with the assistance of the state authorities, will find a long-term solution to this senseless violence.”

Isn’t that clever? They’ve even got local stooges working for ‘em, pretending it’s not the fault of their own greedy fucks. No, it’s the fault of the local natives, for getting in the way of some hired thug’s gun. Who, of course, is not “company personnel”. Duh, he’s a hired goon. Undoubtedly paid under the table, the way foreign companies all do it in these Latin American countries that they don’t give a fuck about.

And of course, this being in our lovely National Pest (yes, that’s sarcasm), the mining company’s viewpoint is front and centre, and the other side is handily dismissed:

Some Spanish-language media reports suggested the clash was related to protests over a project that was viewed as an attempt by the company to access the town’s water supply.

“This sad incident is related to an infrastructure project that was being handled by the municipality of San Jose and it’s related to the inter-connection of sewage and drinking water in the town of San Jose, and it has nothing to do” with the mine, Ganoza said.

He said rival groups, one linked to the municipal government and one connected to the opposition, have clashed around other projects such as road construction.

“There is constant misinformation because I believe there are groups interested in linking us to these issues,” he said.

“It always makes better news to have a foreign company involved in some of this, and some local groups can be more visible if this is linked to an international company.”

Notice that the other side are not even named here. Nameless opposition is so much easier for the Nasty Ass Honey Badger to eat up like a snake. A loose skin of vague rhetoric also makes it easy to shrug off just about anything.

But look, here comes a bird:

A spokeswoman for the Canadian group MiningWatch criticized the company’s position.

“There has been conflict over this project and worries over potential impacts on local water supplies for several years,” said Jen Moore.

“Instead of trying to deny any responsibility, the company should work to help diminish tensions.”

And that’s it for the bird. Three short paragraphs, whoopee! Thanks a lot, stupid!

Of course, the company would argue that it IS “working to diminish tensions”…by sending in hired guns to scare the townsfolk into handing over the precious water supply, and sending out the spokesdroid to say this isn’t the company’s fault, and the gringos from El Gran Norte (that’s CANADA, people) are all honest caballeros, and a whole lot of other mierda that makes no sense whatsoever.

But Honey Badger don’t care. Honey Badger don’t give a shit.

Fortuna Silver, a junior mining firm which also has a silver mine in Peru, announced in September that it began production at the $55-million mine in Mexico. It was expected to produce 1.7 million ounces of silver and 15,000 ounces of gold in 2012.

Because there’s silver and gold in them thar hills, and it ain’t gonna dig itself.

And besides, they’ve got an image as a major local job provider to uphold. 450 local workers, probably all quite underpaid to work in who knows how dangerous of conditions. Who cares if the town they come from has no clean water left to drink, wash with, or irrigate crops? Let ‘em eat gold and silver, eh Nasty Ass Honey Badger?

Fuck, I hate my so-called government (which is, remember, the Harper Government™, not the Government of Canada — Canada doesn’t exist anymore). I hate it for being complicit in this shit. I hate it for rolling back regulation holding Canadian corporations accountable no matter where they operate. I hate it for making us look like shit abroad. I hate it because it steals from the poor and gives only to its rich cronies.

And, also like the Nasty Ass Honey Badger, it just doesn’t give a snake’s ass. We can bite it, and bite it, and it still refuses to die. It just rolls over and starts to snore whenever its prey fights back.

Look at that sleepy fuck.

No means NO, no matter what

Marital rape: It’s not just “rough sex” or “role-playing”.

A young academic has been sentenced to four months in jail for sexually assaulting his wife during rough sex despite his claim that, in their dominant-submissive sexual role playing, “no” frequently meant “yes.”

The 33-year-old man, who cannot be identified to protect the anonymity of his now ex-wife, made the fatal error in being “willfully blind or not seeking clarification” as to whether she was playing a role or she truly did not want intercourse, Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Quigley said Monday.

“The onus was on him to ascertain whether ‘no’ did, in fact, mean ‘no,’” Quigley said.

A York University student at the time of the sexual assault four years ago, the man admitted during his trial in March that his wife said “no” when he grabbed her and forced himself upon her in their bedroom. He grabbed her hair, put his arm over her throat, and pinned her down, saying “You want it, don’t you? You know you do.”

The man insisted he believed her ‘no’ actually meant ‘yes,’ since she spoke in her modulated role-playing submissive voice and her body language had been encouraging.

But the judge ruled last May this was a “convenient fabrication” and found the man guilty of sexual assault.

The ex-husband testified that if she had wanted him to stop she should have used their safe word – “cabbage” – signaling that aggressive role playing should immediately end.

But in her testimony, the former wife denied the existence of the safe word.

She testified that although there was some harmless, dominant-submissive role playing in their eight-year marriage – initiated by him – she adamantly denied she ever agreed to violent or aggressive sex.

She said the intercourse they had on Feb. 8, 2008, was a brutal and non-consensual rape, during which he ignored her sobbing and cries of “no.”

The ex-husband claimed she delayed reporting her rape allegations until eight months later in the context of a family law dispute involving their two children.

What people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is their own look-out. But even with a safeword, the word NO should still be non-negotiable. It should mean the same thing no matter what the context.

And if you’re wondering whether this horrific encounter was emblematic of something else, the evidence strongly suggests it was:

The woman testified he had a very bad temper and during their marriage increasingly tried to control her movements, forcing her to effectively become invisible.

He demanded constant quiet when he was studying, notwithstanding the presence of their young children, she said. The couple would often communicate by text message at home, even when sitting near each other.

Controlling, emotionally distant, a poor communicator, effectively abusive, and potentially dangerous to their two young children, thanks to his temper trouble? That also kind of puts a crimp in the whole idea that the “rough sex” in which “no still means yes” was consensual.

Let’s hope this case becomes a precedent-setter; it could have been dangerous if the ruling had gone the other way.

Cops Behaving Badly: Doubleplusungood

Today’s entry in the annals of rotten cop behavior is a two-fer. First, from Florida, a disturbing case of racist elder abuse, caught on dashcam (despite the cop’s efforts to switch the camera off):

Details from Raw Story:

Technicians in Florida have recovered dashcam video of a Melbourne police officer beating a 66-year-old man who suffers from dementia even though the officer deliberately tried to disable the recording.

An attorney for beating victim Albert Flowers told Florida Today that his client was prepared to sue the city of Melbourne.

“He should be fired,” attorney Paul Bross said of Officer Derek Middendorf. “Anyone who’s being pulled over by this officer should be terrified.”

“It’s clear (Officer Middendorf) tried to destroy all the video in this case. He thought he had turned off the camera, and that’s why he acted the way he did.”

The video clearly shows Flowers calmly walking towards the police cruiser before Middendorf suddenly delivers a kick to his midsection. Before Flowers is able to get up, the white cop drops to his knees and pounds his fists into the African-American man’s face.

Flowers spent a month in the hospital after the encounter.

There is a good chance that the city of Melbourne will be paying for Mr. Flowers’ medical care, and I’d say they owe him. They’d also be fools not to fire that abusive cop.

Next, from Merry Old England, a far-from-merry tale of just how far cops will go to spy on, infiltrate and try to break up environmentalist groups. How about fathering out-of-wedlock children and then fucking off out of their lives, leaving not one but two or more bewildered victims in their wake?

Last month eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term intimate relationships of up to nine years with five undercover policemen started unprecedented legal action. They say they have suffered immense emotional trauma and pain over the relationships, which spanned the period from 1987 to 2010.

Until now it was not known that police had secretly fathered children while living undercover. One of them is [Bob] Lambert, who adopted a fake persona to infiltrate animal rights and environmental groups in the 1980s.

After he was unmasked in October, he admitted that as “Bob Robinson” he had conned an innocent woman into having an 18-month relationship with him, apparently so that he could convince activists he was a real person. She is one of the women taking the legal action against police chiefs.

Now the Guardian can reveal that in the mid-1980s, just a year into his deployment, Lambert fathered a boy with another woman, who was one of the activists he had been sent to spy on.

The son lived with his mother during the early years of his life as his parents’ relationship did not last long. During that time, Lambert was in regular contact with the infant, fitting visits to him around his clandestine duties.

After two years, the mother married another man and both of them took responsibility for raising the child. Lambert says the woman was keen that he give up his legal right to maintaining contact with his son and cut him out of her new life. He says the agreement was reached amicably and he has not seen or heard of the mother or their son since then.

Lambert did not tell her or the child that he was a police spy as he needed to conceal his real identity from the political activists he was spying on. The Guardian is not naming the woman or the child to protect their privacy.

Lambert was married during his secret mission, which continued until 1988.

Nice, eh? No word on what his wife thought of the whole affair, though. Probably something unprintable, if anyone has even thought to ask her at all…

And he’s not the only one who messed around on the job, ON ORDERS.

The second case involves an undercover policeman who was sent to spy on activists some years ago. He had a short-lived relationship with a political activist which produced a child.

He concealed his real identity from the activist and child as he was under strict orders to keep secret his undercover work from her and the other activists in the group he infiltrated. He then disappeared, apparently after his superiors ended his deployment. Afterwards, she remained under surveillance as she continued to be politically active, while he carried on with his police career.

The Guardian understands that as he had access to the official monitoring reports, he regularly read details of her life with a close interest. He watched as she grew older and brought up their child as a single parent, according to an individual who is aware of the details of the case.

The policeman has been “haunted” by the experience of having no contact with the child, whom he thought about regularly, according to the individual.

Sounds like this unnamed officer was himself a victim of the trap he was ordered to set. Just another occupational hazard, I suppose.

And let’s not forget the infamous Mark Kennedy case, either, in which activist women were basically defamed as sluts, and their entire organizations slammed, baselessly, for “promiscuity”. The fact that the police ordered their own officers to be promiscuous (supposedly, in order to blend in with those slutty, slutty hippies) is an irony that will, of course, go utterly unremarked. Right along with the less sexy, but more disturbing, irony that the police also ordered these same undercover officers to give false testimonies in court to further “protect” their fake identities. And, most disturbingly of all, if we look at Mark Kennedy in particular, is how emotionally ruinous it all turned out to be. At which point we have to ask: Is anything these people do real? And is all this fuckery actually worth it? Has it led to anything at all productive, like, you know, the arrest of an actual terrorist?

I have a pretty good guess as to what the answers will be. How about you?

MerCHEdes? Of atrocities and apologies (still owing) from Mercedes-Benz

Yes, the above is an atrocity, and a gross violation of rights. But not for the reasons the gusanos of Miami claim. Cubadebate explains what’s really horrible about it:

The luxury-vehicle company Mercedes-Benz apologized this week for having used the image of Che Guevara in a publicity campaign. Its apology, however, is for the wrong reasons.

The controversy arose last week, after the head of Mercedes-Benz, Dieter Zetsche, presented with much fanfare, in Las Vegas, a series of commercials for the luxury cars. One of these ads included a gigantic blow-up of the famous photo of Che Guevara in Havana, taken in 1960 by the Cuban photographer, Alberto Korda.

Zetsche’s idea was to promote a new Mercedes carpooling project, called CarTogether. The idea is to stimulate sales of the expensive cars with the idea that the owners transport multiple passengers, using the Mercedes as a kind of ostentatious free taxi.

The Mercedes-Benz director said in his presentation: “Some people think that car sharing is like communism. If that’s the way it is, long live the revolution.”

And at that point, he projected on a large screen the image of Che between two of the most luxurious cars offered to the consumer.

The use of the image of Che touched off a ferocious political campaign against Mercedes-Benz, led by a small group of Cuban-US citizens.

For example, a certain Ernesto Ariel Suárez launched a Facebook page, in which he wrote: “Tell Mercedes-Benz that it’s wrong to use the image of a mass murderer”. The ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation joined the fray, characterizing Che as “a psychopath…who killed for fun”. Miami-based publications and blogs also joined the crusade.

The criticisms worked. Mercedes-Benz apologized.

A company communiqué explained: “We were not supporting the life or the actions of this historic personage, or the political philosophy he was defending. We apologize to anyone who may have felt offended.”

To be sure, Mercedes-Benz has much to apologize for, but not because of the criticisms of the enemies of Che, that brave and pure revolutionary who gave his life so that others could live better. No.

The German car company must apologize for the unauthorized use of Korda’s iconic photograph. It should also apologize to the widow and children of Che Guevara for having associated his image with the buying and selling of luxury goods. The political philosophy Che defended with his life said that “man truly reaches his full human stature when he produces without the compulsion of physical necessity of selling himself like merchandise.”

It is a well known fact that the German auto company collaborated with the Nazi régime, and that its most famous employee was Adolf Eichmann, during the latter’s years of exile in Argentina. It is not so well known that the same company also collaborated closely with the Argentine military dictatorship during the Dirty Wars in the Southern Cone. The families of some of its victims, the disappeared workers of Mercedes-Benz in Buenos Aires — Oscar Alberto Alvarez Bauman, Miguel Grieco, Diego Núñez, Esteban A. Reimer, Alberto Francisco Arenas, Alberto Gigena, Fernando Omar del Conte, Jorge Leichner and Héctor Belmonte — have launched a lawsuit against the company in a US federal court.

The relatives allege in their suit that Mercedes-Benz had the unionists kidnapped in order to break a strike. The suit also includes the names of other unionists from the factory who survived the repression — Héctor Ratto, Eduardo Alasiregui, Ricardo Martín Hoffman, Eduardo Estivill, Alfredo Manuel Martín, José Barreiro, and Alejandro Daer. They alleged that they were kidnapped, held in secret prisons, and tortured with electroshock by the Argentine state security forces under the direction and control of Mercedes-Benz.

The crimes of Mercedes-Benz in its Buenos Aires plant took place between 1976 and 1977. Following an internal investigation, the parent company, Daimler AG, concluded in December 2003 that the factory directors in Argentina had given the names of the “subversive” workers to the military junta, and that the objective was, beyond any doubt, to break a strike in the plant that had paralyzed the production of automobiles.

Without the information given by Mercedes-Benz, the security forces could not have kidnapped, tortured and “disappeared” the unionists. Evidently satisfied with the extra-official methods used by state security in collaboration with Mercedes to break the strike of ’77, the company executives wrote an internal memorandum, dated March 22, 1977, in which they conclude: “The result of the government’s methods was favorable, and opened for us a good perspective for the development of the country.”

Uff.

The “methods” praised by Mercedes Benz’s executives are those of crimes against humanity: Torturing, kidnapping and murdering those who dare to demand a just salary, better working conditions, and the end of social inequality.

The lawsuit alleges that Mercedes-Benz of Argetina violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Constitution, the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights, the International Convention Against Torture, the Victims of Torture Protection Act, the Alien Tort Claims Act, and numerous Argentine and international laws, statutes and regulations.

It is true that Mercedes-Benz owes apologies, but not to those who hate Che and slander his name in the corporate media.

The apology is owed to Korda, Che’s widow Aleida, their children, and especially the families of the Argentine factory workers, whom Mercedes-Benz tortured, disappeared and killed during the 1970s. The lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz has been before Judge Ronald M. Whyte in the federal court of San Francisco for more than 7 years. The defense’s tactic is to slow down and delay the process as much as possible. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs continue to wait for justice to be done.

What would Che say to all that?

Translation mine.

Oh, I have a fair idea what he’d say, but I don’t think it would be printable, even on this potty-mouthed blog. Just translating that makes me feel soiled, and ashamed of my German ancestry. And especially embarrassed of the fact that my mom, before she met and married my dad in Northern Ontario, worked in New York City…for the local Mercedes importer/reseller and his wife; she was their au pair and governess. All this almost makes me feel as if *I* owed someone an apology, because if that despicable motor company didn’t employ a certain German-descended US executive, who in turn employed my mother because he wanted his kids to have a German governess, I probably wouldn’t be here.

Yes, that IS fucked up.

But what’s even more fucked up is the Argentine junta, and every bloody thing it ever did. And so is this blatant abuse of Che’s image, with the Mercedes logo in place of the red star on his beret. I mean yeah, his face IS practically synonymous with the whole concept of revolution. But the revolution he stood for was one blatantly at odds with the junta, with Mercedes-Benz’s Buenos Aires plant, and the fascist crackdown against auto workers everywhere.

And it is a revolution blatantly at odds with the use of Che’s face to sell a vehicle which he, on well-founded principle, would NEVER have driven.

So, Daimler-Benz bastards? You know what you have to do. Don’t make me cuss you out in my mother tongue. It sounds even nastier than Che swearing a blue streak in Spanish. Trust me.

When it doesn’t get better

Via The New Civil Rights Movement, I found out a sad thing today. The young man who made this “It Gets Better” video…

…has taken his own life.

Eric James Borges, who took the time to remind bullied queer kids that life will get better, and whose own life was seemingly proof that it does, is gone.

So. Does this mean that it DOESN’T get better, after all?

Watch the video, and you’ll see that there was a lot Eric had to work through. A real shitload. I don’t know what therapy, if any, Eric sought for his problems, but obviously it didn’t get to the bottom of them. And maybe there was no way that it could. When you grow up with a constantly reinforced message that you are “unnatural”, “repulsive”, and all the other horrible things his own parents called him, it’s hard to hear anything that tells you that yes, there is a better world out there, away from all this. And by the time you do get there, it may be too late.

That’s what’s so horrifying about all this.

And that’s why I have to say this:

It won’t get better unless we all work to MAKE it better.

It won’t get better unless we speak out against bullying whenever and wherever we see it happening.

It won’t get better unless we talk back to the fundies and condemn their twisted, hate-based anti-gay ideology.

It won’t get better unless we make it a hate crime to mess with your kid’s head the way Eric’s parents messed with his.

It won’t get better until what happened to Eric, what drove him to take his own life after an unsuccessful struggle, is wiped off the face of our planet.

This is the only world we’ve got, and we’re all sunk in this shit unless we MAKE it better.

It won’t get better without a concerted effort.

Positive messages are good, but what really means something to a bullied kid is when the bully gets the message that bullying is not acceptable. For that, we have to intervene. We have to stand up in church, as it were, and holler BULLSHIT! when the preacher starts spouting homophobia. We have to stop the mental abuse of gay kids by fundie parents, and frankly, that means sometimes having to stand up on our hind legs and say FUCK YOUR SO-CALLED “FREEDOM OF RELIGION”.

Yes, you read that right.

When religion turns into mind abuse and child abuse, that’s where the freedom to believe ends, and the child’s right to freedom from abuse begins.

Eric James Borges was denied his rights. He was denied the right to be as Nature (that’s GOD, people) made him. His parents and teachers and peers, however, were granted the untrammelled right to abuse him. And in the end, their religiously motivated abuse killed him.

I’m not saying there should be no freedom of religion whatsoever. And I’m not advocating atheism. I’m saying that the right to swing your cross and thump your bible ends where a gay kid’s head begins. You may have the right to believe absolute bullshit, but you do not have the right to cram it down anyone else’s throat. And that includes the throat of your own kid.

I’m saying that trying to de-gay your kid in the name of religion should be made a hate crime, and that perpetrators should become pariahs. NOT their victims.

Right now, in spite of all pious rhetoric about how children (especially in the fetal form) are sacred, the Religious Reich in fact grants parents the absolute power and authority to abuse their children in the name of God. It in effect instructs them to PLAY God. It tells them to “pray away the gay” and to “spare not the rod”.

And when the holy, sacred child offends or disappoints the godly parents, the Religious Reich grants them the absolute power and authority to make that child’s life a living hell.

If we really want it to get better, and mean what we say when we say It Gets Better, we have to start by taking away all the absolute powers and authorities that the Religious Reich arrogates to itself and to the parents of queer kids. We have to take away the rod from the religiously-abusive parent and break it over our knees. We have to give kids the right to a safe place, away from bullies, and the reassurance that the bullying is NOT okay, because it is NOT the Word of God.

After all, a bullied kid who has no safe haven from the angry, punishing gods is a kid who will not live to see it get better.

Keystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama

The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten a geologically unstable area that happens to sit over the US’s biggest aquifer (also one of the largest in the world), and make the water undrinkable for about 23 million US citizens. AND, on top of everything else, it’s a job killer…and would make gasoline more expensive, not less so, for those still unfortunate enough to be driving locally made gas-guzzlers. Because the US is still a net petroleum IMPORTER, and most of that imported oil comes From Canada and the Middle East. And because the oil from that pipeline, from Canada, would not be going to serve US needs, but would be converted into gasoline for the lucrative export market. (I had to laugh at the part about shipping it to South America. They have more than enough of their own in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile…and now, Brazil. All South American countries would be more than adequately served from South American oil, refined and supplied by state-run industries! What would they need Texas-shipped gasoline for? Even Mexico and Cuba have plenty for their own needs, and won’t have to rely on the US for that. And Cuba will have help from Venezuela in developing and refining its own offshore oil, so US corporations will be out in the cold there.)

Yes, folks, this is the “ethical” oil that Ezra Fucking Levant is shilling his putzy ass off for. Seems so very ethical now, doesn’t it?

Wait, it gets worse. Let’s go back to the oil-baron threat again. You think it’s nothing serious? It got one previous US president assassinated for daring to oppose the barons. And his vice-president and successor, who happened to be from Texas, and very much in the pockets of the oil barons himself, was a key suspect in his murder:

Pay special attention to the part about Clint Murchison Sr., the oil king with connections to LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, and other shadowy figures of the Kennedy assassination. He was so intimate with them that they partied, and plotted JFK’s demise, at his Texas mansion. Was this where the order went out to kill Kennedy? Quite likely. Between them, the CIA, the Mafia, and the anti-Castro ex-Cubans, it was a perfect storm of colluding, and corrupting, interests!

And let’s not forget, Obama’s predecessor is a Connecticut Yankee from Texas. And yes, Dubya is himself deep in Big Oil’s pockets…STILL. As a wannabe oil baron himself, he was a bust, but as their patsy, he made out like a bandit both as governor and later, as a two-term unelected president.

Anyone who thinks Big Oil has clean hands, and isn’t above assassinating non-compliant leaders, really should watch The Men Who Killed Kennedy in its nine-episode entirety…and bear in mind that very little has changed in US politics since then. It will certainly put the enormous pressures on Obama in a powerful new light. And it will make clear why it is imperative for common citizens to oppose Big Oil and its inordinate influence on the politics of all North America. It is not an exaggeration to say that our entire democratic system is in grave danger from it.