Prairie Fire News

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Greetings from Calico Blackie!

One by one, we’re seeing our rights slipping away.

Our right to protest.

Our right to privacy.

Our right to a fair trial.

Our right to be a whistleblower and to call attention to the wrongs in our society without fear of punishment.

In short….

Our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Yet,

“THERE ARE NONE SO BLIND AS THOSE WHO WILL NOT SEE”.

According to the ‘Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings’ this proverb has been traced back to 1546 (John Heywood), and resembles the Biblical verse Jeremiah 5:21 (‘Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not’).

In 1738 it was used by Jonathan Swift in his ‘Polite Conversation’ and is first attested in the United States in the 1713 ‘Works of Thomas Chalkley’.

The full saying is: ‘There are none so blind as those who will not see. The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know’.

We follow the news that the corporate news networks feed us and conveniently ignore any news which makes us uncomfortable.

We don’t ask questions.

We don’t dive deeper into any story, preferring to just see the surface and accept what we’re fed, then we turn to the “entertainment” section.

Oooh, look!

Lindsay Lohan leaves Betty Ford for new rehab, ‘Canyons’ pics released

Lindsay Lohan has transferred out of the Betty Ford Center and has reportedly moved to a new rehab facility to serve the remainder of her 90-day sentence for a 2012 car crash case.

Link is here:  http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/Lindsay-Lohan-leaves-Betty-Ford-for-new-rehab–Canyons-pics-released/9138428&cmp=emc-otrc-Todays_entertainment_news-061413-top1-9138428

We ignore the real stories that might have “stories within the story”.

For example….

Here’s the latest from Turkey (or, so we’re told):

Erdogan makes conciliatory move to end Turkish protests

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told protesters on Friday he would put redevelopment plans for an Istanbul park on hold until a court rules, striking a markedly more conciliatory tone after two weeks of fierce anti-government demonstrations.

A police crackdown on peaceful campaigners in the park two weeks ago provoked an unprecedented wave of protest against Erdogan and his AK Party – an association of centrists and conservative religious elements – drawing in secularists, nationalists, professionals, unionists and students.

At the overnight meeting, Erdogan met a delegation made up largely of actors and artists but also including two members of the umbrella protest group Taksim Solidarity – hours after saying his patience had run out and warning protesters occupying Gezi Park to leave.

Financial markets, recently under pressure due to the protests and a general sell-off in emerging economies, welcomed the apparent easing of tensions.

The lira rose for a third straight day to its level before the protests started, while bond yields dropped and shares rallied 2.7 percent.

Link is here:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/14/us-turkey-protests-idUSBRE9590QA20130614

Calico Blackie says:

The Turkish government now appears to be willing to make concessions.

Why?

Not because of the protestors. No. The government would just as soon have killed them all.

The concessions will be made because “Financial markets, recently under pressure due to the protests and a general sell-off in emerging economies, welcomed the apparent easing of tensions.”

So, what really happened is the rich put pressure on their government puppets to end the protests because it’s hurting profitability.

The same thing happens in this country, but we choose to ignore it. If a group of protesters in the USA suddenly began to have an effect on profits, you had better believe the protest would be put down in a hurry and the mainstream media would trumpet the demise of a “bunch of dirty hippie protesters” AND THE AVERAGE AMERICAN WOULD SAY: “Those dirty hippies deserved it.”

But, hell….

Who cares about protests when the news if full of “The disease du jour” and “McRapes?

You know….

Bird flu.

West Nile Virus.

Female teachers diddling their students.

Priests screwing little boys.

Male soldiers harassing and porking their female counterparts against their will.

It’s all a mess, but it’s “safe” news for us to read. It doesn’t hurt Wall Street profits and it takes our attention away from the fact that we’re all getting raped by the banksters that now control our country.

AND….

We can read the news from Turkey and say: “It can’t happen here and if it did, the protesters were doing something wrong.”

We can read about the McRapes and say: “This will be punished here.”

“If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about”

Well, in the “it can’t happen here” and ”If you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about” department……..

Here’s something I stole from another website for your reading pleasure:

BUT, DON’T WORRY. IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE (or, can it?).

“I live in a country generally assumed to be a dictatorship. One of the Arab spring countries. I have lived through curfews and have seen the outcomes of the sort of surveillance now being revealed in the US.

People here talking about curfews aren’t realizing what that actually FEELS like.

It isn’t about having to go inside, and the practicality of that. It’s about creating the feeling that everyone, everything is watching. A few points:

1) the purpose of this surveillance from the governments point of view is to control enemies of the state. Not terrorists. People who are coalescing around ideas that would destabilize the status quo. These could be religious ideas.

These could be groups like anonymous who are too good with tech for the governments liking.

It makes it very easy to know who these people are. It also makes it very simple to control these people.

Lets say you are a college student and you get in with some people who want to stop farming practices that hurt animals.

So you make a plan and go to protest these practices. You get there, and wow, the protest is huge. You never expected this, you were just goofing off. Well now everyone who was there is suspect.

Even though you technically had the right to protest, you’re now considered a dangerous person.

With this tech in place, the government doesn’t have to put you in jail. They can do something more sinister.

They can just email you a sexy picture you took with a girlfriend.

Or they can email you a note saying that they can prove your dad is cheating on his taxes. Or they can threaten to get your dad fired.

All you have to do, the email says, is help them catch your friends in the group.

You have to report back every week, or you dad might lose his job. So you do. You turn in your friends and even though they try to keep meetings off grid, you’re reporting on them to protect your dad.

2) Let’s say number one goes on. The country is a weird place now. Really weird.

Pretty soon, a movement springs up like occupy, except its bigger this time. People are really serious, and they are saying they want a government without this power. I guess people are realizing that it is a serious deal.

You see on the news that tear gas was fired. Your friend calls you, frantic.

They’re shooting people. Oh my god. you never signed up for this. You say, fuck it. My dad might lose his job but I won’t be responsible for anyone dying. That’s going too far. You refuse to report anymore.

You just stop going to meetings. You stay at home, and try not to watch the news. Three days later, police come to your door and arrest you. They confiscate your computer and phones, and they beat you up a bit. No one can help you so they all just sit quietly. They know if they say anything they’re next. This happened in the country I live in. It is not a joke.

3) Its hard to say how long you were in there. What you saw was horrible. Most of the time, you only heard screams. People begging to be killed. Noises you’ve never heard before. You, you were lucky. You got kicked every day when they threw your moldy food at you, but no one shocked you.

No one used sexual violence on you, at least that you remember. There were some times they gave you pills, and you can’t say for sure what happened then.

To be honest, sometimes the pills were the best part of your day, because at least then you didn’t feel anything. You have scars on you from the way you were treated. You learn in prison that torture is now common.

But everyone who uploads videos or pictures of this torture is labeled a leaker. Its considered a threat to national security.

Pretty soon, a cut you got on your leg is looking really bad. You think it’s infected. There were no doctors in prison, and it was so overcrowded, who knows what got in the cut.

You go to the doctor, but he refuses to see you. He knows if he does the government can see the records that he treated you. Even you calling his office prompts a visit from the local police.

You decide to go home and see your parents. Maybe they can help. This leg is getting really bad. You get to their house. They aren’t home. You can’t reach them no matter how hard you try.

A neighbor pulls you aside, and he quickly tells you they were arrested three weeks ago and haven’t been seen since.

You vaguely remember mentioning to them on the phone you were going to that protest.

Even your little brother isn’t there.

4) Is this even really happening? You look at the news. Sports scores. Celebrity news.

It’s like nothing is wrong. What the hell is going on? A stranger smirks at you reading the paper. You lose it. You shout at him “fuck you dude what are you laughing at can’t you see I’ve got a fucking wound on my leg?”

“Sorry,” he says. “I just didn’t know anyone read the news anymore.” There haven’t been any real journalists for months.

They’re all in jail.

Everyone walking around is scared. They can’t talk to anyone else because they don’t know who is reporting for the government. Hell, at one time YOU were reporting for the government.

Maybe they just want their kid to get through school. Maybe they want to keep their job. Maybe they’re sick and want to be able to visit the doctor. It’s always a simple reason.

Good people always do bad things for simple reasons.

You want to protest. You want your family back. You need help for your leg. This is way beyond anything you ever wanted.

It started because you just wanted to see fair treatment in farms. Now you’re basically considered a terrorist, and everyone around you might be reporting on you. You definitely can’t use a phone or email.

You can’t get a job. You can’t even trust people face to face anymore.

On every corner, there are people with guns. They are as scared as you are. They just don’t want to lose their jobs. They don’t want to be labeled as traitors.

This all happened in the country where I live.

You want to know why revolutions happen? Because little by little by little things get worse and worse.

But this thing that is happening now is big. This is the key ingredient.

This allows them to know everything they need to know to accomplish the above. The fact that they are doing it is proof that they are the sort of people who might use it in the way I described. In the country I live in, they also claimed it was for the safety of the people.

Same in Soviet Russia. Same in East Germany. In fact, that is always the excuse that is used to surveil everyone. But it has never ONCE proven to be the reality.

Maybe Obama won’t do it. Maybe the next guy won’t, or the one after him. Maybe this story isn’t about you.

Maybe it happens 10 or 20 years from now, when a big war is happening, or after another big attack.

Maybe it’s about your daughter or your son. We just don’t know yet. But what we do know is that right now, in this moment we have a choice.

Are we okay with this, or not? Do we want this power to exist, or not?

You know for me, the reason I’m upset is that I grew up in school saying the pledge of allegiance.

I was taught that the United States meant “liberty and justice for all.”

You get older, you learn that in this country we define that phrase based on the constitution. That’s what tells us what liberty is and what justice is. Well, the government just violated that ideal. So if they aren’t standing for liberty and justice anymore, what are they standing for? Safety?

Ask yourself a question. In the story I told above, does anyone sound safe?

I didn’t make anything up. These things happened to people I know. We used to think it couldn’t happen in America. But guess what? It’s starting to happen.

I actually get really upset when people say “I don’t have anything to hide. Let them read everything.”

People saying that have no idea what they are bringing down on their own heads. They are naive, and we need to listen to people in other countries who are clearly telling us that this is a horrible horrible sign and it is time to stand up and say no.

Link is here:  http://cavemancircus.com/2013/06/11/why-you-should-care-about-your-privacy-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/

Calico Blackie says:

It certainly can happen here, while we’re sitting around with our heads in the sand, bleating about perv priests and rapist soldiers.

We bleat about these stories because this kind of stuff isn’t supposed to happen in “The greatest country in the world.”

Oh, yes….

Rapists and kiddie diddlers should be caught and prosecuted, but is it worth our diverting our full attention away from the fact we’re becoming a fascist state?

Here’s the latest “McRape” story for you…..

Victim of alleged rape at Marine base: ‘I thought … I would be safe’

A 23-year-old Washington, D.C. woman who alleges she was raped on a Marine Corps base just blocks from the U.S. Capitol said she never thought she’d be in danger among members of the military.

“I thought I was going to a place where I would be safe,” said Karalen Morthole in an exclusive interview with NBC News. “In my head, I thought these are people who are supposed to be protecting me.”

This week a Marine Corps general ordered that Master Sgt. Ronald E. Bohlayer be charged with raping Morthole after a night of partying and drinking last July at the historic Marine Barracks on Capitol Hill. The charges come as the entire U.S. military is under fire for its handling of sexual assault cases, and barely a year after the release of an Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Invisible War,” that featured allegations of sexual assault and raucous drinking at the Barracks. The allegations got widespread attention from Congress despite strong denials from the Marine Corps. 

Morthole, who agreed to let NBC News use her name, is a local bartender and recent Catholic University graduate. She said that after attending a Washington Nationals game last July 3, she was partying with some friends at the Ugly Mug bar on 8^th Street SE when she accepted an invitation from a Marine to go to a pub on the grounds of the Barracks, directly across the street.

She was escorted onto the base by the Marine early on the morning of July 4, she said, without showing any identification to a guard. (Calico Blackie asks: What if she had been a terrorist and was carrying a bomb in her purse?)

The article continues…..

Once at the Marine Barracks pub, she said, she and others present began drinking “a lot” of shots of Irish whiskey – and one Marine got sexually aggressive in a patio area outside.

“The man who was doing this kept on making very vulgar advances toward me, sexual advances towards me,” Morthole said.

He “pinned” her against a wall, she said, got “very close to my face and …kept repeating the phrase, ‘I’m going to (blank) you.’”

“I was very scared,” said Morthole. “I can just remember being in excruciating pain and crying and asking him to stop.”

Link is here:  http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/14/18940666-victim-of-alleged-rape-at-marine-base-i-thought-i-would-be-safe?lite

Calico Blackie says:

We shouldn’t trivialize assault of any kind, whether it be in the military, or on the streets.

We shouldn’t trivialize assault of any kind whether it be committed by a crazed drunked-up Marine, or by a Cop pepper spraying and beating peaceful protesters for daring to exercise their right to free speech.

Yet, our media DOES trivialize or justify such actions.

Remember this sentence?

“she and others present began drinking “a lot” of shots of Irish whiskey – and one Marine got sexually aggressive.”

?????????

What’s wrong with this picture?

There’s plenty of you out there who will say: “She got blind drunk with a bunch of Marines and now she’s complaining because she got screwed?”

THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT THE MEDIA WANTS YOU TO SAY!

That’s why the media included the fact that she’d been drinking a lot too.

HEY…..

RAPE IS RAPE and can’t be allowed if we are going to call ourselves “civilized”.

RAPE IS RAPE and can’t be allowed if we are going to call ourselves “free.”

She didn’t deserve what she got. She was stupid, yes. But didn’t deserve to be assaulted.

Besides, where in the hell were HIS buddies? Wouldn’t YOU stop a friend if you realized he was drunk and about to do something that would get him thrown in jail?

I have a feeling we’re not getting the full story.

We’re just being fed bits and pieces to keep our attention away from the REAL stories of our times. It’s the military, for chrissakes! If they wanted, they could just institute a new law that says “Any soldier convicted of rape gets life in Leavenworth at hard labor.”

End of story.

But, well…

It’s not supposed to happen here. Especially among our “heroes”!

Hell. It CAN’T happen here!

But it does.

Ms. Morthole was doing nothing illegal or wrong. She should have had nothing to worry about.

YOU’RE DOING NOTHING WRONG. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT TOO.

But, you can still get figuratively raped.

Think about it….

Are you on any type of disability or assistance?

Sooner or later the government will get around to you and either cut you off, or cut you off and make you pay back what they gave you.

Why?

The corporations with their tax breaks and “incentives” have run our government broke, and the money to run this country into the ground has got to come from somewhere.

Can’t pay the money back or exist without that monthly check? Will you be homeless too?

That’s a jailin’ and you will get to spend the rest of your days toiling away in the prison industrial complex.

But, you weren’t doing anything wrong! Why are you all of a sudden being called a “deadbeat that deserves jail” by your fellow Americans?

You’re a deadbeat because the media says you are, and the people who still are “free” believe you to be a deadbeat.

After all, the media said so!

Do you oppose the loss of freedom here in America, but have done nothing but speak out about it with your neighbors or maybe you created a shitty little blog to spread information to people?

All it would take is one informer.

One little slip of the Patriot Act or NDAA, and it’s off to GITMO you go!

It’s coming folks, if we continue to ignore the obvious.

And it is time to stand up and say no.

Calico Blackie   @kidakita