thenatureofmind

Twenty Years Of Barbarism At Guantánamo

The first “high-value detainee” at Guantánamo military prison was approved for transfer a day before the detention camp marked the 20th anniversary of confining prisoners in the “war on terrorism.”

According to lawyers from Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) who represented him, Guled Hassan Duran was captured in Djibouti in March 2004. The CIA renditioned him to a secret prison site, where he was tortured and abused prior to his transfer to Guantánamo in 2006. He was designated by President Barack Obama’s review task force for indefinite detention, even though he was not charged with a crime.

Duran is a citizen of Somalia with “prior residence in Germany and Sweden.” Congress prohibited the United States government from transferring any Guantánamo prisoners to Libya, Somalia, Syria, or Yemen in 2015. Because he cannot return to Somalia, it could be several years before he is released to a country willing to accept him.  

Thirty-nine prisoners remain indefinitely detained at Guantánamo. They have been in confinement for the past 15-to-20 years without charge or trial.

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David Graeber: After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep

In an essay penned shortly before his death, David Graeber argued that post-pandemic, we can’t slip back into a reality where the way our society is organized — to serve every whim of a small handful of rich people while debasing and degrading the vast majority of us — is seen as sensible or reasonable.

"At some point in the next few months, the crisis will be declared over, and we will be able to return to our “nonessential” jobs. For many, this will be like waking from a dream.

The media and political classes will definitely encourage us to think of it this way. This is what happened after the 2008 financial crash. There was a brief moment of questioning. (What is “finance,” anyway? Isn’t it just other people’s debts? What is money? Is it just debt, too? What’s debt? Isn’t it just a promise? If money and debt are just a collection of promises we make to each other, then couldn’t we just as easily make different ones?) The window was almost instantly shut by those insisting we shut up, stop thinking, and get back to work, or at least start looking for it."

David Graeber: After the Pandemic, We Can’t Go Back to Sleep

 

 

David Graeber speaks at Maagdenhuis Amsterdam in March 2015. (Guido van Nispen / Wikimedia Commons)

The Next Singularity

For animals the singularity already happened

CIA Drove Spike In Media Leak Investigation Requests Under Trump

New Data Obtained by The Intercept adds considerable detail to what we already know about former President Donald Trump’s relentless campaign against whistleblowers and leakers in the intelligence community. The Trump administration referred far more media leaks for criminal investigation each year than any of the previous 15 years, with the CIA accounting for the vast majority of such leaks, according to a trove of records released by the Department of Justice to the independent watchdog group Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

CIA Drove Spike in Media Leak Investigations Under Trump

Bucky Fuller understood....

Occupy 2.0

Occupy 2.0 Demands Worksheet

Please read, discuss, copy and pass along. Check those things you agree with, put an X beside those you don’t agree with. Write in those you want that are not here. Pass it on....

Government:

1. End the militarization of police. No military equipment or military type equipment to be used by police. No pepper spray, mace, rubber bullets, tear gas or ultra sound equipment to be used against citizens exercising their constitutional rights to redress grievances by the government. 
2. The complete restoration of the protections of the 1st amendment. The end of restrictions on protests and the end of harassment of protesters by police. Police have no role as to when and where people may exercise their 1st amendment rights.
3. End the direct hiring of returning soldiers from war zones into the police force. If a soldier is hired, require a minimum 2 year training period in which their understanding of police duties and how those duties differ from military duties are learned and their progress approved by their superiors.
4. All police budgets to be subject to the same constrains as schools, medical care and hospitals. When school budgets are cut, police budgets will be cut. 
5. The establishment of a citizens truth commission to allow citizens to bring forth their stories of mistreatment at the hands of the police and courts and lawyers to represent them to redress their grievances. 
6. The restoration of the protections of the 4th amendment with respect to illegal search and seizure. An end to searches of citizens or their effects without a court order.
7. An end to spying on US citizens. An end to tapping of phones and computer communications of US citizens. 
8. End the racially based “stop and frisk” in all its forms throughout the country, 
9. Repeal the Patriot Act.
10. The establishment of a basic universal income. 
11. End the foreign wars that are draining the economy
12. Close most of our foreign military bases
13. The restoration of the constitutional war making power to the congress. No war actions to be allowed without a congressional declaration of war. 
14. Cut the military budget in half
15. End the attacks on our unions by reinstating the Taft-Hartley Act.
16. Allow ALL citizens to form unions based on a simple majority vote. 
17. Prosecute union busting in all of its forms. 
18. Appoint a national commission to completely re-write the tax code, no politicians or corporate lobbyists allowed. Remove the industry written loopholes. Craft it to favor small businesses and not large businesses. 
19. Do everything that needs to be done to make starting and running a small business as easy as possible with special loan programs and mentorship programs specifically for small businesses. 
20. Re-instate and re-write the Glass-Steagall act to prevent bubbles in the economy and prevent recessions and depressions.
21. Close the CIA and appoint a special prosecutor with a large team of investigators to uncover the illegal actions of the CIA and prosecute the criminals. Prosecute all who violated the Geneva convention on torture. Document and prosecute all illegal activities of the CIA since it’s inception. The CIA now represents an illegal unrestricted 4th branch of government that is a threat to our freedoms. It was originally chartered to gather information. It has become an illegal army making war wherever and whenever it wants without the declaration of war by the congress. 
22. An end to torture, REALLY!
23. Close Guantanamo and give it back to the Cubans.
24. A constitutional amendment to ban unlimited campaign contributions.
25. A real congressional code of ethics preventing any Senator or Representative from voting on a measure affecting one of their campaign contributors.
26. Restoration of the equal time law that specifies that all broadcast media must provide free equal time for any partisan broadcasts.
27. Eliminate the so called “political debates” being run by for profit media organizations. Have them run by non political non-profit organizations. Allow all registered candidates to participate. 
28. The establishment of special government channel(s) like C-span for public political debate. ALL candidates would have free air time and would not be allowed to buy air time on the non-government channels thus eliminating the largest political campaign expenditure significantly reducing the need for large sums of money in politics.
29. Close the capital building to lobbyists. 
30. No lobbyist shall be eligible to run for elected office for 10 years after their last paycheck.
31. No congressperson or senator shall become a lobbyist for 10 years after leaving congress.
32. The acceptance of anything from a lobbyist, even a meal shall be grounds for expulsion from the congress.
33. No bill shall be presented to congress that is not written in the congress by paid congressional personnel. 
34. End the US government war against Julian Assange and Pvt. Bradley Manning. Reward the whistle blowers.
35. End the government secrecy policies and allow the citizens to know what is really going on in government. Publish the Warren Commission report. After 50 years we deserve to know the truth.
36. End the war on illegal immigrants. No person is illegal. 
37. An end to the economic blockade of Cuba.

Environment:

37. Craft environmental policy based on science and not on corporate propaganda
38. End all fossil fuel subsidies. 
39. Stop the Tar Sands project. The negative environmental consequences of this project will affect every man woman and child on this planet. It must stop
40. Ban fracking in the entire US. It is a dirty polluting technology. Concentrating any energy in this technology delays the finding of alternative energy sources.
41. Treat alternative energy the same way we undertook the space race and the national highway system. Give it top priority.
42. Allocate money and create jobs retrofitting the older buildings in the US to make them energy efficient. 
43. Tax cars based on size: the larger the car the higher the tax. Encourage the driving of smaller cars.
44. Tax gas to the same level as Europe so that people will buy smaller cars.
45. End strip mining

Economy:

46. Tax money earned through investment at the same tax rate as real labor. 
47. Restore the top tax rates to their levels in the 1950’s.
48. Our monetary system was devised over 100 years ago before the advent of computers. Create a national commission with the best of our economists and ordinary citizens (no politicians, no lobbyists) to address the problems and inequities in our monetary system. Eliminate the Fed or Federalize it.
49. Nationalize the Banks and create many local banks which will serve local communities. Too big to fail: too big to exist.
50. Allocate money and create jobs fixing the decaying infrastructure of the US
51. Allocate money and create jobs building a nationwide high speed train system.
52. Allocate money and create jobs building better local mass transit systems. Get people out of their cars.
53. Create a WPA type project to get people back to work rebuilding the decaying infrastructure and refurbishing our public parks and creating new green spaces.

Health Care:

54. Institute a single payer health care system guaranteeing health care for all. Decouple health care from employers. Free health care for all.
55. Examine drug company pricing and allow the selling of generic drugs when necessary to lower the cost of medicines.
56. Restore the patent system to its original time frames and not allow extensions.
57. Make the “drug problem” a health issue not a police issue. Set up centers where drug addicts can get the drugs they need at low cost and provide support services for health and for drug rehabilitation. Use Portugal’s program as a model.
58. Legalize non-addictive drugs: marijuana and psychedelics

Education:

59. Free education at all of our state universities and community colleges. Make a college education affordable to all students.
60. Free teachers’ education. Pay teachers what they should be paid. Make sure that our children are getting the best education possible.
61. The establishment of a special schools act that will use government money to address the inequality of education. All schools to be funded at the same level and that level to be determined by studying those schools of countries that have the highest standard of education. Use the lessons learned to determine curricula and to address the need of students to be able to have a marketable skill upon graduation. Forget testing, put the money where the students are.

Simple Formula for Living

Simple Formula for Living

Live beneath your means
Return everything you borrow
Stop blaming other people
Admit it when you make a mistake
Give clothes not worn to charity
Do something nice and try not to get caught
Listen more; talk less
Take a 30 minute walk everyday
Strive for excellence, not perfection
Be on time. Don’t make excuses
Don’t argue.
Get Organized
Be kind to unkind people
Let Someone cut ahead of you in line
Take time to be alone
Cultivate good manners
Be humble
Realize and accept that life isn’t fair
Know when to keep your mouth shut
Go on an entire day without criticizing anyone
Learn from the past. Plan for the future
Live in the present
Don’t sweat the small stuff
It’s all small stuff

Hsin Hsin Ming: On Trust in the Heart, Attributed to Jianzhi Sengcan (Chien-chih Sêng-ts’an) The third Patriarch of the Dhyana Sect

The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose;
Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear.
Make a hairbreadth difference, and Heaven and Earth are set apart;
If you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against.
The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease;
While the deep meaning is misunderstood, it is useless to meditate on Rest.
It [the Buddha-nature] is blank and featureless as space; it has no "too little" or "too much;"
Only because we take and reject does it seem to us not to be so.
Do not chase after Entanglements as though they were real things,
Do not try to drive pain away by pretending that it is not real;
Pain, if you seek serenity in Oneness, will vanish of its own accord.
Stop all movement in order to get rest, and rest will itself be restless;
Linger over either extreme, and Oneness is for ever lost.
Those who cannot attain to Oneness in either case will fail:
To banish Reality is to sink deeper into the Real;
Allegiance to the Void implies denial of its voidness.
The more you talk about It, the more you think about It, the further from It you go;
Stop talking, stop thinking, and there is nothing you will not understand.
Return to the Root and you will find the Meaning;
Pursue the Light, and you will lose its source,
Look inward, and in a flash you will conquer the Apparent and the Void.
For the whirligigs of Apparent and Void all come from mistaken views;
There is no need to seek Truth; only stop having views.
Do not accept either position [Assertion and Negation], examine it or pursue it;
At the least thought of "Is" and "Isn't" there is chaos and the Mind is lost.
Though the two exist because of the One, do not cling to the One;
Only when no thought arises are the Dharmas without blame.
No blame, no Dharmas; no arising, not thought.
The doer vanishes along with the deed,
The deed disappears when the doer is annihilated.
The deed has no function apart from the doer;
The doer has no function apart from the deed.
The ultimate Truth about both Extremes is that they are One Void.
In that One Void the two are not distinguished;
Each contains complete within itself the Ten Thousand Forms.
Only if we boggle over fine and coarse are we tempted to take sides.
In its essence the Great Way is all embracing;
It is as wrong to call it easy as to call it hard.
Partial views are irresolute and insecure,
Now at a gallop, now lagging in the rear.
Clinging to this or to that beyond measure
The heart trusts to bypaths that lead it astray.
Let things take their own course;
know that the Essence will neither go nor stay;
Let your nature blend with the Way and wander in it free from care.
Thoughts that are fettered turn from Truth,
Sink into the unwise habit of "not liking."
"Not liking" brings weariness of spirit;
estrangements serve no purpose.
If you want to follow the doctrine of the One,
do not rage against the World of the Senses.
Only by accepting the World of the Senses can you share in the True Perception.
Those who know most, do least; folly ties its own bonds.
In the Dharma there are no separate dharmas, only the foolish cleave
To their own preferences and attachments.
To use Thought to devise thoughts, what more misguided than this?
Ignorance creates Rest and Unrest; Wisdom neither loves nor hates.
All that belongs to the Two Extremes is inference falsely drawn,
A dream-phantom, a flower in the air.
Why strive to grasp it in the hand?
"Is" and "Isn't," gain and loss banish once for all:
If the eyes do not close in sleep there can be no evil dreams;
If the mind makes no distinctions all Dharmas become one.
Let the One with its mystery blot out all memory of complications.
Let the thought of the Dharmas as All-One bring you to the So-in-itself.
Thus their origin is forgotten and nothing is left to make us pit one against the other.
Regard motion as though it were stationary, and what becomes of motion?
Treat the stationary as though it moved, and that disposes of the stationary.
Both these having thus been disposed of, what becomes of the One?
At the ultimate point, beyond which you can go no further,
You get to where there are no rules, no standards,
To where thought can accept Impartiality,
To where effect of action ceases,
Doubt is washed away, belief has no obstacle.
Nothing is left over, nothing remembered;
Space is bright, but self-illumined; no power of mind is exerted.
Nor indeed could mere thought bring us to such a place.
Nor could sense or feeling comprehend it.
It is the Truly-so, the Transcendent Sphere, where there is neither you nor I.
For swift converse with this sphere use the concept "Not Two;"
In the "Not Two" are no separate things, yet all things are included.
The wise throughout the Ten Quarters have had access to this Primal Truth;
For it is not a thing with extension in Time or Space;
A moment and an aeon for it are one.
Whether we see it or fail to see it, it is manifest always and everywhere.
The very small is as the very large when boundaries are forgotten;
The very large is as the very small when its outlines are not seen.
Being is an aspect of Non-being; Non-being is an aspect of Being.
In climes of thought where it is not so the mind does ill to dwell.
The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One.
Take your stand on this, and the rest will follow of its own accord;
To trust in the Heart is the Not Two, the Not Two is to trust in the Heart.
I have spoken, but in vain; for what can words tell
Of things that have no yesterday, tomorrow or today?

Takakusu XLVIII, 376.

Translated by Arthur Waley

Source: Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, Edward Conze (ed.). New York: Philosophical Library, 1954, pp. 296-298.

 

Song of Tea by Lu Tung

The first cup moistens my lips and throat.
The second cup breaks my loneliness.
The third cup searches my barren entrail,
          but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs.
The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration;
          all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores.
At the fifth cup I am purified.
The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.
The seventh cup - ah, but I could take no more!
          I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. 
          Where is Paradise? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

Cards Against Humanity Saves America