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Hm...
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Feb. 14th, 2012 @ 11:21 am
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Is it weird that Valentine's Day reminds me how rare it is for me to actually be genuinely interested in someone... and when I am, it ends really bad.Current Mood:  blah Current Music: Carnifex - Love Lies in Ashes |
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Jan. 3rd, 2012 @ 05:27 pm
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2011: The New War of Intellect
Julian Guillen
I woke up today just like anyone else. I awoke from my bed, turned on my computer and went on the internet to access today’s news, while eating a small plate of mixed fruit with coffee and eggs. I learned that morning of a certain person, named Anders Behring Breivik.
This man is from Norway. He was greatly against the Norwegian Labour Party when younger, unlike his parents. He brought himself into the Lutheran Church of Norway at the age of fifteen. Later, after a troubled young life and being denied military service, Breivik would go on to plan for nine years how he would later set of bombs to government offices, killing eight, and massacre sixty-nine children of a Labour Party youth camp.
While he had a lot more planned, the full carnage of his plans was never carried out. After being caught and tried, courts declared him a paranoid-schizophrenic. If he is put into psychiatric care, he could spend a maximum of 30 years in prison, if not his whole life. However, there is a diagnosis every three years of such offenders who are declared “in a temporary psychotic state.” He could be released within three years or so.
Sad to say that’s not all I learned that same morning from the news. I learned of another person’s name, Brian Terry, a US border patrol officer who was killed as a result of a sting operation that went sour. Operation “Fast and Furious,” where millions of firearms were illegally smuggled across borders of the US into Mexico, later had court records concealed by the Obama Administration.
Then, ended up reading on legislation in our great United States of America with an article just a link away. The Senate voted into effect on Tuesday, November 30th, 2011 the National Defense Authorization Act. Under this new law, military and government intelligence can capture and detain anyone indefinitely under being suspected of terrorist activity, without trial, without being read any rights or legal representation. Similarly is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was brought back into law as early as late 2006, with new revisions for our age. This act entails that the president can declare “martial law” and employ military services in the event of, in addition to insurrection, danger to public safety, a terrorist attack, natural disasters or “other conditions.”
Of course, at this point, I decided to not bear the burden of the world’s problems from reading too much, so I went on to do my duties of the day, cleaning dishes and my apartment where I was staying with my sister, who was on her first semester of college at Florida State University. I could not escape the chaos going on in our society, however. My sister calls me into her room later in the morning at 3 A.M. as she watches the live web-stream of Occupy Los Angeles, and how police in riot gear are preparing to kick everyone out of the park that refused to leave. It is no surprise to see in the past month all the Occupy movements in the major metropolitan cities such as New York’s “Wall Street” movement, Occupies in LA, Philedalphia and Oakland have been with heavy police presence in an attempt to shut it down.
This year has shown that the modern world is globally at a point of economic, political and social instability. What our forefathers established before us as self-governing systems, having seen no change with the times or population increases, now no longer are able to function in serving the people. The massive move to post-humanity and apathy towards change is leading the earth and its populous to decay.
The stock market has suffered two huge nosedives down, as an inevitable result of the debt ceiling being raised in August earlier this year. The “Arab Spring” that started with Egypt and Tunisia continues through Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen, as well as leading to the fall of Gaddafi and the Libyan government. A nuclear disaster took place in Japan as well, as a result of the earthquake and Tsunami that left about 16,000 dead, over 5,000 injured, and over 3,000 missing. Major riots happened in London, starting as early as November 2010 where children of as young as 16 were fighting with riot police in the streets protesting against tuition increase three times the original cost. London has only seen chaos since these events sparked and this past year had protests increasing to rioting, looting, and arson. Greece rioted as well, bringing citizens to protest the raising of taxes and public cuts. The demonstrations have been since 2010 that continue even now. Italy had a prime minister who represented the country most recently with several sex scandals, already adding to his extensive record of accusations which include bribery, organized crime co-operation, account and tax fraud, as well as extending to perjury in court when tried on these accounts; later Berlusconi went on to resign, but still remains Italy’s third richest man with a net worth of $9 billion. His resignation was a whimper in a chaotic mess of social and political order, leaving Italy without proper leadership in the middle of the European debt crisis that has left the Euro to loose even more of its value.
Why does the general public let this mammoth of corruption go without even verbal rebuttal? The information on all these heinous acts is available made to the public easily. The wrong acts have been rightly documented; nothing has been hidden from the public in the age where one is freely able to exchange digital information.
So why the silence from the general public?
Putting it simply: survival and stability. The general public isn’t concerned with anything beyond completing their daily tasks and achieving what is necessary to obtain their necessities of the day; food, water and shelter are now, more anxiously, the primary of the average American household. The banks bad gamble and the housing bubble that led to the first recent major recession led to a lot of people struggling from being homeless, while many still did under foreclosures that later were noted to never be legal in the first place. Perverting our law and insuring themselves against the fallouts, however, the banks have managed to put responsibility on the duped public themselves, leaving little room for escaping a massive unfair debt.
The media also tends to add to misinforming the public while also attempting to keep public panic from ensuing. 24-hour corporate news networks have been only adding to stories that really have no relevance to national concern, and the news that should be dire for us to learn is put aside, replaced with mindless television meant as a sedative for the mind. Barely watching television, I still overheard more information from friends, coworkers and relatives even about Kim Kardashian’s wedding and the Roast of Charlie Sheen than I did on the “Arab Spring.” It’s obvious the media is choosing what they want to show us and how long they would like us to see the bigger picture and those in control of the tube will filter it, something people have grown more and more aware with the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which with its ambiguous word choice can be interpreted to make uploading anything at the hands of the public illegal. The power of the internet currently granted to anyone with an internet connection and computer, to freely share information with their fellow man wherever they wish, is now in danger of being a freedom reprimanded by the power elite.
Then, something extraordinary happened. A group of invisible hackers known as “Anonymous,” known only to the endless fields of the net came forth attempting civil disobedience by disrupting and hacking into numerous work operations, both at local and international levels of authority, in an attempt to fight against groups that were guilty of censorship and oppressing information. The group is most famous for using the image of Guy Fawkes (more popularly known as the mask used for the film “V for Vendetta”) to cover their facial identities. In order to be part of the organization, you cannot reveal your identity as well, adding more reason to the name itself. Their goal with their operations is to attack those who oppress freedom of speech and press, as they claim: “we do not forgive, we do not forget. Expect us.” With no public identity within society or the group itself, Anonymous has made a commitment to staying invisible and in vast number to keep freedoms secure using the power of the individual to shape the net.
Anonymous first received media attention on the issue of the Church of Scientology. Tom Cruise was seen in an interview on Youtube representing Scientology, with the church later claiming a copyright violation and asking for the video to be taken down. Once it was, Anonymous launched “Operation Chanology,” leading to a series of protests, denial-of-service attacks, prank calling from the general public and random faxes to the church itself. The protests themselves manifested and became an ongoing movement itself, peaking until November 2009.
This was only the beginning, as Anonymous began operations involving retaliation against the rigged Iranian 2009 elections (with them teaming up with The Pirate Bay, the infamous Swedish torrent site, to create a website helping Iranian protesters), Australian censorship from the net (by attempting denial-of-service attacks on government sites), the tea party in Oregon, the Westboro Baptist Church (famous for their “God Hates Fags” slogan), Sony, etc… Even the Arab Spring was something Anonymous became a part of. What Anonymous is not most famous for (and they should be) was their actions in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan and Libya, working to list out government officials private information and releasing it to the public as well as interfering with government operations against the populous’ protests . In Egypt, for example, they took down Egyptian government websites as well as the Democratic Party’s sites until Mubarak stepped down from power.
Anonymous, however, received a reply from governments with a series of arrests that spread worldwide through the US, UK, Australia, Spain, etc. They also received media and reputation attacks from the Church of Scientology. Most of the ones accused of being involved with Anonymous activities were teens, some not even the age of thirteen and some no older than that of twenty-six years old.
Anonymous wasn’t the only group that was advocating free speech and circulation of information. Wikileaks, the infamous website releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents from armed conflicts around the world, had its website put on the blacklist in several countries, blocking access including in Australia, China, and others. Julian Assange, the website’s editor-in-chief and creator, was put under house arrest without being charged with a crime or given trial for over a year. Trial was suspended for over a year on a person that wasn’t even charged with a crime but put under 24-hour surveillance and house arrest. Assange, however, acted more professionally insured than an average journalist, changing cell phones, appearance and location constantly to keep from being monitored while also working on Wikileaks with his staff almost on the go. After he had published enough material to gain credibility as a journalist and public figure, along with much support to Wikileaks from the general public, he was able to escape rendition.
However, others weren’t so lucky. Bradley Manning, an intelligence agent for the United States Army who was accused of treason for giving classified information onto Wikileaks itself, was locked up at Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, later announced on the 19th by the Pentagon that he would be moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The conditions also brought up idea of torture, enclosed in a solitary confinement, left in a cell nude in cold conditions and only seeing maybe an hour of daylight a day. These conditions have been forced upon Private Manning for the past year, with even UN Human Rights representatives only meeting with him almost half a year after requesting audience to confirm conditions, with meetings being monitored constantly. Manning, now in trial, is facing 22 charges, including treason and with leaking sensitive information endangering public national security.
The situation with Bradley Manning goes beyond just the leaking of information, as his lawyer David Coombs, has brought to light before the courts. Manning was a soldier with many personal conscious issues, including gender identity in the current time with the issue of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is still being upheld, leading to Manning having misconduct including punching a fellow female officer in the face during a dispute. Instead of the military seeking to counsel Manning or revoking his security clearance, he was demoted from Specialist to Private, making it seem as negligence on the military’s part. Later, with Manning as an intelligence agent in Iraq, and an unstable conscious mind with dangerous sensitive material, led later to him releasing hundreds of thousands of documents to Julian Assange concerning operations run by the US, including the Apache helicopter video released in 2009 that caught world-wide attention, where in Baghdad there were journalists and innocent civilians killed at will by US soldiers.
Anonymous, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning, however, are not the only ones speaking in criticism of abusive authority, in criticism over events that the US military has taken activity in years past. Of course, the media has taken advantage that these “whistleblowers” have worked outside the law, demoting them to “conspiracy theorists” or “cyberterrorists” to debunk their entire argument and mountains of evidence.
More in focus and in question more than ever is the situation of the Arab Springs, more importantly how NATO and president Obama illegally went into Libya without congressional approval. Journalists from the UK, France, and Portugal have come forward in public hearing to speak on their witness accounts of what was truly going on, and what occurred was not a revolution that wishing for a true, fair democracy, but a battle between empires for resource and control.
“Make no mistake, Africa has been central to the world economy, of course beginning with the slave labor system and later providing for the plantations of tobacco and cotton which were a huge boost to the Industrial Revolution, then leading to the 19th century to the gold and diamond mines that lead to the violent genocides and civil wars to the region, all of which were backed by Western corporations” says Dan Glazebrook, a middle east political analyst from the UK. “The real fear for the West is that Africa is to unite and free itself from this economic grip that was in hold for the last 500 years, and the real drive behind this was Libya….the rebels are playing themselves into a racial divide and rule strategy by the West…”
Highlighted more by Western media as a cruel dictator, Gaddafi, though, was the main force behind true economic independence in Africa as one of the main leaders of the African Union (even giving Africa it’s first satellite), saying in 2010 “no African nation will allow US bases on their soil” after the US in 2007 and beyond was attempting to set up AfriCom (“African Command and Control Center,” which were military bases set up with US forces to control and engage with Africa, which would lead to economic dominance by military control. No African nation wanted such a thing.). The media has been used to turn public opinion for the aid of imperialism in what Lizzie Phelan (journalist who visited Libya just as the revolution took place in Tripoli) described as “the greatest propaganda trick I have seen in my lifetime.” Phelan is a political journalist, who in the last 9 months was able to see Libya first hand on two trips, one for a peace mission and the second for press television and as a correspondent for work with Russia Today. Her accounts of Libya focus on the media war between independent media and the Western corporate media that tells of how Gaddafi, the genocidal dictator, was on a stronghold of power, but she begged to differ:
“…they said that in August earlier this year, Tripoli fell without resistance, but they never mentioned the 1,300 people that were massacred in the city, nor the 900 who later were injured…they said that Libya was attacking it’s own people from the air, but Russian intelligence satellites have shown us that this was impossible…yes, there were rebels….they said that Libya’s people hated Gaddafi, but they never showed the 1.7 million people across the country who were ready to pledge allegiance to their country and Gaddafi…”
Glazebrook and Phelan both also gave testimony to how NATO was interested in intercepting with Libya from 2010 and put Anti-black Arab supremacist rebels as the opposition to Libya to destroy the racial integration Gaddafi set up in the region, something most of the Western media was actually saying opposite to. “…they said that the Libyan government was hiring mercenaries from other countries in Africa, but they never showed us evidence. Instead, we saw pictures of hundreds of black Libyans being lynched by NATO backed rebels,” said Phelan. The rebels who were put in power of the rebellion against the nation of Libya were on a “purging black skins” brigade. In the 2nd day of the uprising, 50 African migrants were killed. Six weeks into the revolution, 35,000 Libyan soldiers were slaughtered and the rebels were told to look specifically for “black skin” Libyans. The use of this racism was to exploit the rage of a few radicals in order to keep the country divided and weak and easier to imperialize, as Phelan summed it up: “…the war on Libya is a war on Africa…”
Where does all of this leave us now?
The media continues to shape the truth for the intentions of those above, even as Americans themselves have felt there is no more time to be silent. The Occupy Movement, which began in October of 2011 in Wall Street, has seen much criticism from the mainstream media, calling them “anarchists,” “socialists,” “communists,” terrorists,” and every other demeaning connotation you can think of, more popular with the notion of seeking to call them “unemployed, worthless hippies.”
Still, what started on Wall Street became global phenomena, with the movements not only spreading across the country to almost every major city in the United States, but also around the world. Italy in one protest had over 100,000 people, later leading to a chaotic riot and leaving 70 people injured or dead. Greece’s Occupy started a work strike that lasted 48 hours. Syndey, Australia, had a recorded number of 4,000 people, Spain 10,000, and even Japan had protests concerning the nuclear disaster, as well as how the government neglected to inform others of how nuclear material had leaked into the water supply, afraid of international embarrassment in their clean-up efforts. Even in London’s Occupy, Julian Assange took attendance as he continues to fight for freedom of press. However, these movements have also lead to massive civil unrest and things that were seen as unfathomable, including the critical injury of veterans who were helping protesters, Scott Olsen being the first to be nationally recognized and now suffering severe nerve damage and struggling with motor functions, as well as Kayvan Sabeghi, both injured in the Oakland riots.
New Republican elections only grow as a media frenzy, almost a circus with statements like “this Obama administration is working with payphones, we’re a smart phone generation, Mr. President!” as said by Mitt Romney while racing against several candidates such as Herman Cain, Michele Bachman and Rick Santorum, almost as if promising to keep the current Obama administration in power, who are all in the pockets of Wall Street themselves. Obama’s re-election is being endorsed greatly by Goldman Sachs, one of the same banking institutions that led to our current financial crisis, and that continue to get bigger. With Berlusconi gone from Italy after his resignation, as we mentioned earlier in this article, now Italy has had a new prime minister, Mario Monti, who was a banker from Goldman Sachs, while Greece now in the transitional period as well received Lucas Papademos, who was the former vice-president of the European Central bank. Both were brought in without congressional approval or election, and said there is a need for “financial stability,” but one that doesn’t seem to concern the public interests.
It is obvious the banks are attempting to gain as much control as they possibly can before the public is too aware, and they are using the media to condemn people’s right to assemble easier as more and more rage fills the streets with riots with all the Occupies. JPMorgan Chase gave as “charity” $4.6 million to the NYPD Foundation on the eve of the protests. The gift was the largest in the history, but one that was obvious in its aim to gain police force onto the side of the banks, which the protests were mainly focused on targeting.
Where do we go now? The NDAA, the most treasonous act towards American citizens, was signed on the anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Occupy movement in Wall Street had Zucotti Park shut down, but continues to grow in numbers and protest, despite the police doing their best to set up blockades and keep others out. Crackdowns on all the grounds around the country continue, but the support for the “99%” continues to increase. Wikileaks continues to expose more secret information, including most recently on the spy industry that has developed with 160 spying companies in 20 countries, monitoring people around the world and archiving information via email and phone. Now, the SOPA wishes to stop the use of the masses to have the freedoms of the internet (if it were in place, I would not even be writing this right now) but time moves on, with no end in sight of the mammoth amount of political corruption.
After all I have uncovered through observation from various sources, even those that are highlighted as truly resourceful and credible, there is no question that writing in its own craft is a structure of personal rhetoric, not to be confused with truth or true wisdom. In that, all this is not to give in to ideas of conspiracy nor to give in to dystrophic sentiment of our society, but to give testimony to the average perspective and to point out, of course, that it is in a state of disbelief and confusion. Cognitive dissonance is inevitable in the human being who reads what’s around them, leading to this being the first real “information war” where everyone, like it or not, must participate to be consciously strong and intelligent, or confused and misfortuned…Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Chimp Spanner- All Good Things |
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"I can still hear her voice... filling me with endless sorrow..."
Well, I haven't written in this thing for awhile. Might as well write something, wake up my mind...
Soooo... I guess I can start out by saying that since I last wrote somethin for real, I was still being confused with personal schtuff.... OMG life is crazy! I actually looked at pictures today (as everyone does so that we program our memory choosing what images to see or not) and realized I've been moving up and down Florida so much, I don't even know when I was where or what I was doing. Life is just nuts for me right now. 2 bands, family, looking for work, studying GRE...
Parents and sister need me around most of the time recently to help them with things as well, it's like everybody as well is in the same boat, everyone's short on money or broke or in debt or looking for jobs or something. Luckily, my sister is going to Gainesville cause she got into UF (yay!)
My boys in Brigand and I have done a lot since last I updated. Aside from already opening up for Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch, iwrestledabearonce, Otep (ew),Whitechapel, Psyopus, Gigan, Cattle Decapitation and even my boys of Kalakai, the band opened for Origin, Vital Remains (:D!!!) and Abysmal Dawn in July. We got to smoke with Abysmal Dawn too, Origin's singer was nice and Vital Remains.... playing with them was a dream come true for me this year. Then the following week I got to play another show with my boys, then I went to Orlando and played with my other band Needless To Say at the famous Club Firestone. That week was insanity. I didn't even know if I was going to be able to pull it off, but I did.
3 more songs, and the Art of Brigandage is FINALLY complete! We've been working on it since Spring, so I'm excited to finally hear the final result, our songs sounding like real professionally recorded music. They already sound badass, especially Fire The Trebuchet, I think. The website is coming along, we attempted a livestream practice (although we definitely need to work on mixing the audio better) and Bradley started working on his side-project. I need to get some recording equipment already, get Humans As Animals working again. The demo was released and people liked what they heard, so I just wanna make more to finally have enough for a live performance.
STILL trying to find a job... at least I'm writing again. Writing rock articles and political analysis, lol. Might as well try and get something published and then try and use that to get a real job. Also still studying GRE's. Freaking out about taking it again, I want to get enough money at least first so I can take it twice in two months period of time... you're only allowed to take it 5 times a year.
Not to mention the crazy shit that the world is coming to. NDAA, FEMA camps, world dictators keep falling with Kim Jung Li dying last night, Bin Laden, the Euro crisis continues, Anonymous, etc... shit's just wild man. I hope the new year people can bring GOOD things and not be so blind and feeling powerless when in fact it's the other way around. People can do a lot, and they can save the earth if they stopped being pessimistic and giving into apathy.
Well, I guess the good thing about this year is that I realized, (and yea... this is gonna be kinda corny) that it's the people in my life who make it worthwhile... and there's a lot of em. I can't even name them here, there's too many, but they all know who they are, cause I've told em at one point or another that I love them. And at least I get to have Christmas with my family. Some places it's not guaranteed at all if you'll see your family next week. It's sad...
2011 - an insane year. But, in the words of Amon Amarth, don't despair, show no fear, and live your life without regrets!
JulesCurrent Mood: awake Current Music: Isis - Syndic Calls |
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Mar. 11th, 2011 @ 12:06 pm
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Please be ok, Mal.
Please be ok Japan. I can't live without either of you! |
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So I saw this movie, "The Fall" where it's about a stuntman who falls off a horse and is paralyzed. With his paralysis, he also must face his love leaving him for the one who plays the lead role of the film.
Throughout the movie he tells his story of love lost, with action and imagination, to a little girl who is also a patient at his hospital where he is recovering. He tells a tale of himself as a thief with a group of three other thieves who wish to kill a powerful lord who has wronged them all. In the story, he finds a love that is tainted and betrays him (just like in real life).
At the end, however, in his story he tells the woman to go live her own life, helping him move on in life without being depressed.
So the point I got out of this movie was...
She was a hoebag anyway! (probably one of the most important lessons I've learned from a movie... ^_^)
Btw, yesterday was insanity. I got an interview at FSU Film School (holy shit...), was told of three great shows my band, Brigand, is booked for in March which is a live performance for a boxing fight(s)! (holy SHIT!) AND I finally closed a deal in Real Estate I've been working on for like 4 months. (HOLY CRAP!)
Yep... I am feelin goooooood.
Jan. 26th, 2011 @ 01:40 pm
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May those that curse days curse this day...
Nov. 13th, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
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Well, last night the boys and I in Brigand opened for iwrestledabearonce (amazin) and Otep. How can I possibly top off last night? Eating a bagel?
This morning feels lame!
Jul. 12th, 2010 @ 10:26 am
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Seeing my friends dominate gives me strength.
Jun. 27th, 2010 @ 06:08 pm
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| » Above Our Fabricated World |
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You’ve always been curious to see the roof.
It’s still just concrete floor you’re physically on
but the excitement of being high is too great, too important to give up.
You go up the Empire State, up the Eiffel Tower,
up the Willis Tower, you go up and up and up.
Just as pyramids were made by the slaves
so shall our slaves serve to make the Metropolis.
Giant stone of the Gods later made into towers of steel
as if the heavens were in our control, within our grasp.
The higher we seem to get,
the more of the world we hold in the palm of our hand.
You can see below the small ants unaware of the plot at hand,
building and buying and smoking and drinking and fucking
and lying and betraying and killing and eating each other.
The earth fed up with cancer.
The once green lush turns into a decaying smoke
that drowns life breathing within.
The inhabitants constantly lost in the sea of our propaganda.
Safety first, but the sight will cause anyone to be dizzy.
You feel fine until your father next to you squirts milk through his nose,
the hegemonies below giving the old man sadistic amusement.
You may barf a little and feel the bile in your throat.
God next to you.
He grabs your hand. “I was ‘planning’ on you to be here.”
You look back at the hand he grabbed to see an incision,
a cut that opens a fold within the arm.
There’s no feeling at all.
You can rip the wires out through where your veins used to be.
- Julian G.
Jun. 21st, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
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movie_stalker's journal
