The Silver Brazilians

"Do You Remember The Future, Baby?"

"The IraqDonalds"

By Geordie Pleathur
(SugarBuzz Nation)

SugarBuzz Magazine

If Strummer Was Still Alive...The Silver Brazilians Would Be His Fave Band...by Geordie Pleathur...

"Well, they basically just are raping you, in public. I got asked the other day, do you want to go for a screening or get padded down, I don't want that X-Ray to see everything, honey," (-Khloe Kardashian-heiress, reality show star, big lamestream celebrity, on unconstitutional TSA radiation and molestation gestapo tactics)

"Absolutely, because, as you remember, in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell, you saw revolution—revolutions and freedom movements across Eastern Europe. Mubarak is our Berlin Wall. When Tunisia had its revolution and toppled Ben Ali, everyone thought, 'Beautiful little Tunisia, you’re so brave. But it’s never going to happen anywhere else.' Now, it’s happening in the traditional leader of the Arab world. Egypt is a country of 80 million people. Once Mubarak falls—and he will fall; I mean, he’s crumbled. Several days ago, as far as I was concerned, he was done. Once Mubarak falls once and for all, you will see what will happen in the Arab world. This is going to—every Arab leader is watching right now in terror, and every Arab citizen is elated and cheering Egypt on, because they know the significance of this." (-Mona Eltahawy)

"It's great to see Americans demonstrating in solidarity with ordinary Egyptians. But the next time I cross paths with a robust protest march, I'd like to see citizens protesting the wreckage of American prosperity by Wall Street ..." (-Robert Kuttner)

"It's necessary to keep cool heads and strong hearts and not ever to lose hope and to keep on going ... people all over the world who want freedom, somehow or the other feel connected to other people who are struggling for freedom." (-Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Laureate and leader of Burmese democracy movement)

"The ultimate measure of whether or not the Obama administration will roll back the police state will depend on whether or not there are prosecutions of Bush administration officials. Past history says this isn't likely; whether it was enslavement of African Americans; ethnocidal policies against American Indians; or the consistent, sometimes violent repression of dissent, government has generally not been held accountable. While Nixon left office and a few of Watergate's perpetrators were punished, the institutional arrangements involving the FBI and CIA that made Watergate possible remained. The imperial presidency was slowed but not halted. When the Iran-Contra conspirators violated the Constitution, President Bush senior pardoned them." (-Andrew Kolin)

"Not too long after his inauguration, Obama basically said that accountability for the crimes (national and international) of the Bush regime would be 'off the table,' because we need to 'look forward.' That’s easy to say if A) one hasn’t experienced such unpunished loss, and B) one is planning on continuing the crimes. Indeed, the Obama DOJ has vigorously blocked accountability for anyone in the Bush regime; maybe most notably, John Yoo and Federal Judge, Jay Bybee, who collaborated to formulate the disastrous US torture policy." (-Cindy Sheehan)

"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." (-Abraham Lincoln...from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency, to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company, in Germany)

"If you knew what life was worth, you would look for yours on earth..." (-Peter Tosh)

"The failure of the United States to halt the slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by Israel has consequences. The failure to acknowledge the collective humiliation and anger felt by most Arabs because of the presence of U.S. troops on Muslim soil, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but in the staging bases set up in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has consequences. The failure to denounce the repression, including the widespread use of torture, censorship and rigged elections, wielded by our allies against their citizens in the Middle East has consequences. We are soaked with the stench of these regimes. Mubarak, who reportedly is suffering from cancer, is seen as our puppet, a man who betrayed his own people and the Palestinians for money and power.

The Muslim world does not see us as we see ourselves. Muslims are aware, while we are not, that we have murdered tens of thousands of Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have terrorized families, villages and nations. We enable and defend the Israeli war crimes carried out against Palestinians and the Lebanese—indeed we give the Israelis the weapons and military aid to carry out the slaughter. We dismiss the thousands of dead as “collateral damage.” And when those who are fighting against occupation kill us or Israelis we condemn them, regardless of context, as terrorists. Our hypocrisy is recognized on the Arab street. Most Arabs see bloody and disturbing images every day from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, images that are censored on our television screens. They have grown sick of us. They have grown sick of the Arab regimes that pay lip service to the suffering of Palestinians but do nothing to intervene. They have grown sick of being ruled by tyrants who are funded and supported by Washington..." (-Chris Hedges)

State Terror And Puppet Dictatorships...

My thoughts and prayers are with the people's popular uprising in Egypt, and I'm hoping the U.S. and Israel don't install another tyrant puppet to repress those long-suffering people. Unfortunately, President Obama, reportedly, had a half hour discussion with the Pharaoh Mubarak, immediately prior to his dispatching rent-a-mob, secret-police thugs, on horseback and camel, into the public square, where the people of Egypt gathered, to demand the thirty year reign of iron-fisted dictator, Hosni Mubarak, come to an immediate end. Mubarak's response was to install his secret-police chief, a Western rendition asset, to the "Vice Despot" position, and order plain-clothes cops to attack the revolutionaries with gunfire, whips, sticks, and stones. He blacked out the phones, and internet, declared curfew, arrested community organizers, arrested journalists, arrested Amnesty International reps, beat up journalists, but still, he could not turn back the will of the people. It appears as if Obama encouraged him to stay on the throne, in private, while issuing vague statements in public about "peaceful transitions" and "deploring violence". Blair, Biden, Clinton, and the Prime Minister of Italy continue to praise puppet dictator, Mubarak, even as his U.S. paid-for private security thugs, and police loyal to the regime, lash out at hundreds of bloody protesters, with whips! Days later, it appears as if the U.S., and Israel, are appointing the torturer-in-chief underboss, as the new dictator.

These Egyptian despots are partners with the U.S. intelligence-oligarchy, in torture, and rendition. Disappearances, state-media, censorship, surveillance, secret police, elimination of key witnesses, no jobs. Paying desperate men to beat protestors...Sound familiar?

Meanwhile, the White House pretends to "deplore" such violence. The usual lip service to "democracy" and "peaceful transitions to democracy", while mercenaries, and plain clothes, psy-op/black-op's agent provocateurs are dispatched to do the dirty work of empire. Disgraceful, as usual. Tony Blair calls this guy, Mubarak, "a hero, and a force for good". Tony "War Crimes" Blair, sure fooled the Cool Britannia crowd, didn't he? It's tragic, how all these evil states, can always pay violent thugs, who are willing to brutally impose the will of the authoritarian elites, on the people. The CIA/American way. Whether it's silencing third parties clamoring to be heard in the U.S.; the Israeli military imposing their inhumane searches and sanctions on Gaza, and killing people on humanitarian vessels; excusing the Chinese occupation of Tibet and student demonstration massacres; or continuing Dick Cheney policies of torture and rendition, and Patriot Act domestic spying abuses, it seems that Washington always gives it's thumbs up to the global tyrants to murder the people, and repress all the true democratic movements. A blood bath is happening in Egypt, as I type, because Obama supports the dictator, who's finally, unleashed his well-funded death squads upon the millions of civilian protesters, crammed into the square, crying for the dictator to step down. The Mubarak thugs are even employing the classic American "pig wedge", where they attack the peaceful people from both sides. Winning by brute force and the usual U.S. backed intimidation tactics. Obama's characteristic apathy in the face of unforgivable human rights violations is appalling. American media is only covering the story from the perspective of the global elite shadow government. The first thing faux Dem, Obama did, upon being elected, after paying hollow lip service to closing Gitmo, was lean on Spain to undermine the prosecution of the Bush Six, for their many human rights violations, under international law, and swept the last administration's war crimes under the rug, even as he perpetuated them. Did we elect Kissinger, or Cheney, as agents of hope and change? Despicable! The billionaires and trillionaires and fat generals, spies, and KBR and Monsanto and Lockheed-Martin, and private prison stockholders, who own the U.S. politicians all hate democracy, and the fake Democrats of this administration, hate liberals, progressives, organic farmers, and anti-war activists. How sad, y'know?!

Back in the states, they say that under the quietly renewed Patriot Act, the police state can raid people's security deposit boxes! They can go through all your belongings, steal your stuff, listen to all your calls, grope your body, arrest you for no reason, invade your home with no search warrant, pay you minimum wage for back-breaking work, make you listen to Miley Cyrus and Jonas Bros. songs on the radio, and they call this "freedom". Secret Police are documenting your every purchase, and what you read, and say, and look at, on-line. If you get sick, you're usually fucked. These illegal wars drag on and on, in Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The secret police apparatus is all the way up your arse, here in the so-called "homeland". American artists are totally cowed into submission. The common folk are ruled and fooled by TV.

Meanwhile, across the pond, the sound of revolution rock is in the air...Silver Brazilians are garage soul renegades, with absolutely heroic, beat poetic lyrics, like a late night jam between Kerouac, Ginsberg, Dr. Feelgood, Ian Dury, and Havana Three A:M, or maybe the 101'ers opening for the savage young Beatles, way back in Hamburglarsville, daddy-o's...They got the reckless abandon of the Humpers, the cool stylishness of Brian Setzer, with the social consciousness of the Pogues, or the Clash. In America, we got Paul K., and the Glass Heroes, but for the most part, our bands lack the integrity, untamed courage, wit, and lyrical ability of Silver Brazilians. They got IT. "IraqDonalds" makes me second guess my own song lyrics!!! Like Billy Bragg on Ritalin and meth amphetamine. Little Steven called their song, "Kate Winslet" the coolest song in the world. No shit, man. These guys just rock like crazy. Where's the guts and soul in America? The Silver Brazilians are stone rebel motherfuckers.

Think early Stones bluesiness, with the revved-up energy of hardcore punk. The Motor City Five and the Clash.

I guess you could call it retro, but it's so angry, and true, and smart, and alive, and like, pulsing with NOW, it ain't like you're on a paisley revival trip, like when you're listening to the Smithereens, or Chesterfield Kings, really. It's cool as hell-like the Jim Jones Revue, it ain't backwards looking, at all. It's like somebody messed up Chris Isaak's hair, and now, he's out for blood! It has a pounding sixties garage feel, with all the wailing harmonica...The Silver Brazilians got plenty of Johnny Lee Hooker style, white-hot, burning, soulpower, but the lyrics are fantastic, poignant, contemporary, meaningful. Savvy? If you like the Godfathers, the Mescaleros, the Animals, or the Pretty Things, man, look for a wicked series of E.P.'s by these punk'n'soul sons a bitches on the A-S-A-P.

You Are Being Lied To By Corporate Media:

....What does it say about our rightwing police state, that for-hire, ass-clowns of the oligarchy, like Sarah Palin, and Glen Beck, are legally allowed to, consistently, use the privately-owned, public-air-waves to call for violence, to instruct their nutty racist followers to assassinate liberals and progressives, but peace activist's homes(!!!) are raided, and their personal belongings are stolen, by the Feds, under a "Democrat" president---for advocating peace, and non violent civil disobedience? Obama and Hillary Clinton are both, vigorously, promoting the wars, wiretaps, TSA fondlings, and secret-police raids, and jive-ass grand juries, an all-out attack on the peace movement.

If you've come to the rational conclusion that the obsolete big-media is hopelessly slanted, fixed, crooked, entirely owned and operated by a tiny clique of corporate war profiteers, and their slick marketing wonks, who make their smug millions, by misguiding the common folk, with outrageous, wag-the-dog fabrications, you might be grasping for independent and progressive news sources. Here's a few to add to your "favorites" list, and pass along to the people on your friends-list:

standtogethernow.org
www.amnestyusa.org
www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/31-1
www.codepink4peace.org/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TalvTj-vmLw&feature=player_embedded
dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/the-fbi-kamikaze-pilots-case-by-sibel-edmonds/#more-98955
www.organicconsumers.org/
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB04Ak01.html
www.rethinkafghanistan.com
www.presstv.ir/usdetail/163293.html
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB05Ak01.html
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/03/egypt-journalists-roundup_n_818381.html
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hv6sQXI1WY
www.democracynow.org
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1962149
www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/04-1
dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
www.firejohnyoo.org
www.dontscan.us
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TalvTj-vmLw&feature=player_embedded
journals.democraticunderground.com/sabrina%201/183
www.democratunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x550231
www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/not-leaving-until-hosni-does
www.propublica.org/blog/item/egypt-u.s.-rendition-program-and-the-italian-job
www.worldcantwait.net
pdamerica.org/articles/news/2011-01-18-00-48-12-news.php
www.wewontfly.com
www.seizebp.org
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/03/egypt-army-moves-in-as-pr_n_817935.html
www.gaslandthemovie.com/trailer
votersforpeace.us/press/index.php?itemid=4663
dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/underneath-the-egyptian-revolution-by-billy-wharton/

THE BEST NEW BAND:

www.facebook.com/pages/The-Silver-Brazilians/101712008164?v=app_19935916616

STATE OF THE UNION:

www.stopthesewars.org/
vimeo.com/19458674
www.huffingtonpost.com/janine-r-wedel/emshadow-eliteem-the-egyp_b_817951.html
www.answercoalition.org/national/index.html
carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201122124446797789.html#
www.counterpunch.org/soldz01312011.html
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/02/rojadirecta-org-seized_n_817458.html
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x548311
www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-grenell/obamabiden-support-mubara_b_815426.html
www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1251001
www.democratunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x549770
news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/30/thousands-converge-on-koch-brothers-billionaires-caucus-25-arrested/

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