WarFolly.com - Nader's The One by John KaminskiNader’s The One Are you an authentic human being or a brainwashed media-controlled robot? by John Kaminski skylax@comcast.net 8-4-04 I consider it one of the clearest indications that Americans are completely brainwashed and anesthetized in a consumeristic, media-induced coma that Ralph Nader, a man who has accomplished much for the actual benefit of many Americans, is regarded as the illegitimate presidential candidate who can't even get on the ballot in many states, while George W. Bush and John Kerry, two privileged patricians who have never even held a job that wasn't handed to them by their rich friends, and certainly have never done anything significantly positive for humanity, are widely recognized as the only realistic choices for voters in the upcoming election. Could there be a clearer indication that the majority of the American population is simply incapable of holding a conversation on their own without depending on the slyly deceptive media misconceptions they have been forcefed all their lives? Could there be a clearer example of how Americans are narcotized by the avalanche of consumer images that dog their every step and can’t even make an authentic decision based on what is good for their own well-being? I don't think so, although there are many other possibilities for the best example of this — to name just one, sending your children to war in Iraq for reasons you know in your heart to be blatant lies. Rephrasing that: sending your children to die for lie. I keep wondering what Nader would have done, imagining he were president right after 9/11 happened. Can you just imagine him siccing legions of Nader's Raiders on the World Trade Center rubble to check for anomalies in the steel core columns to determine why they broke and allowed the building to fall? And scrutinizing fires that burned underneath the debris for many weeks? Those reports his Public Citizen troops would surely have written would have been very interesting. Overly analytical type that he is, you can be sure there would have been a very detailed investigation. It's an interesting thing to think about, considering we have had absolutely no investigation at all into the greatest crime in American history, a stupefying insult to our intelligence that has changed the entire character of political discourse throughout the world based on a bald-faced lie that no one seems to have the courage to confront. A stupefying insult to our intelligence that significantly lessens the chances of every person on the planet that they will live their lives without being blown up by their own government. And yet it's exactly the kind of thing Nader has confronted every day of his adult life. Can you imagine Nader deploying an army of psychiatrists and (non-fundamental) clergymen on the soldiers returning from Iraq and requiring them to explain why they would have raped young Iraqi children in front of their imprisoned mothers in order to extort tactical military information from clearly innocent civilians upon orders from Donald Rumsfeld? Of course, of course. 9/11 and the Iraq butchery likely never would have happened had Nader been president. To my knowledge Nader is not intimately and perversely connected to the petroleum-producing elitists who desire to see American landmarks in a heap of rubble to increase their already obscene income stream. He’s the only candidate I know who talks about the danger of corporate power. He’s the only candidate I know who talks about the influence of Israel on the American government. I don’t need much more information than that to know that puts him head and shoulders above Bush and Kerry, who are squarely in the pocket of both corporate power and Israel, the two greatest threats to the well-being of everyone on earth. How much more do you need to know? And how brainwashed are you? I find it very instructive to compare the achievements of Ralph Nader with the resumés of George W. Bush and John Kerry. For all the information Nader has compiled to help average consumers, Time magazine once called him “America’s toughest customer.” Though I don’t have matching Time quotes for the other two politicians, you can just imagine what they might have said. Bush? “Was never successful at any job he ever had.” Kerry? “Bogus war hero who Admiral Elmo Zumwalt once said needed to be watched carefully because of his penchant for killing Vietnamese civilians unnecessarily.” Nader has been called one of America's most effective social critics. His well-documented criticism of government and industry has had a tangible effect on public awareness and bureaucratic power. His actions have motivated thousands to become consumer advocates who in turn have established their own organizations throughout the country. Nader first made headlines in 1965 with his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a scathing indictment that lambasted the auto industry for producing unsafe vehicles. Not many of you remember the Corvair, a gasoline bomb on wheels. The book led to congressional hearings and a series of automobile safety laws passed in 1966. Since 1966, Nader has been responsible for at least eight major federal consumer protection laws, according to his campaign literature: the motor vehicle safety laws, Safe Drinking Water Act; the launching of federal regulatory agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Administration; the recall of millions of defective motor vehicles; access to government through the Freedom of Information Act of 1974; and for many lives saved. All these years later Nader is still on the rubber chicken circuit preaching about the "imperialism" of multinational corporations and of a dangerous inbreeding of corporate and government power. With the passage of autocratic trade treaties like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), this merger of corporate and government interests is escalating. A magazine founded by Nader in 1980, the Multinational Monitor, tracks the global intrusion of multinational corporations and their impact on developing nations, labor, and the environment. Nader has always talked about empowering citizens to create a responsive government sensitive to citizens' needs. The top of Nader's agenda has been detoxing the U.S. civil justice system, particularly in the areas of product liability, securities fraud, and medical negligence. So just compare that impressive record with Bush and Kerry. Bush? Military deserter, covered up by his father’s political connections. Cocaine addict, arrested in Houston, 1972, trial records made to disappear. Shady character in Central America, working for his father, who had an oil company as a cover for drug smuggling. Then somebody bought him a baseball team, and he turned a tidy profit. Then somebody put him on the board of an oil company, whose stock he illegally sold at a hefty profit just before it collapsed. Suddenly he’s governor of Texas, signing death warrants at a record pace. Then bingo, he’s president, put there by a stolen election in which the pivotal state was run by his little brother, who devised a scheme to deprive tens of thousands of people who would have voted for his opponent of their right to vote. Then, bingo again, New York City is attacked and we have endless wars all over the world. Now that’s what I call a resumé. No wonder the American media are so impressed. Kerry? Member of same disgusting and secretive college fraternity as George Bush who just recently discovered his name was not Kerry but Kohn, Jonah Kohn. Jewish on both sides of his family, but he let people think he was Irish for years and years in order, one might allege, to get elected in Irish Massachusetts. Campaigns as a war hero but his Army buddies felt the need to write a book about what a reckless faker he was, putting himself in for medals for minor incidents he himself precipitated and killing hapless Vietnamese civilians who couldn’t fight back. Faked being an anti-war type in the ’70s to get publicity, but later, after being elected senator, denied he ever meant it. But the topper for Kerry is what Sherman Skolnick reported: Kerry was on the plane that took Poppy Bush and his evil Republican retinue to Paris in 1980 to bribe the Iranians to keep the American hostages in prison until Reagan had won the election. Yes, the famous October Surprise. Let’s hear it for the Democratic Party, Lori! You too, Frank! So, when you put these three resumés side by side, and calculate that both the media and the American public consider Bush and Kerry to be the legitimate major candidates, and Nader to be the perennial inauthentic pretender, what do you conclude? If you reach any other conclusion that the vast majority is a braindead, manipulated, unconscious herd that doesn’t hear a thing that is actually being said, then you are probably a member of this majority yourself. Now, I am not advocating that you vote for Nader, because I am urging — because we all know the vote count is being manipulated by the fascist companies that control the electronic voting machines, and your vote won’t count in any circumstances — that you do not vote at all. And even if I were going to vote, I would not say that Nader is the best of the alternative candidates, although I’m not saying he’s not, either. The Green Party recently dumped Nader for one of its own, and more recently the California Peace and Freedom Party instead nominated jailed American Indian activist Leonard Peltier at its convention. Were I to vote this time I could easily vote for either of those candidates, or any of several others who are running with alternative philosophies. The point is that they are ALL more legitimate — and will do far less damage to both us and the world — than the two major candidates who are being stuffed down our throats by the cabal of mainstream media mannikins who wouldn’t recognize the truth of this rant if it were stuffed up their noses — and if they were allowed to attempt to speak the truth by their Zionist/CIA/banker controlled corporate bosses, which they are not. It’s just that of three candidates I focused on — Nader, Bush, and Kerry — Nader is by far the more authentic human being and the less dangerous person than either of the two anointed perverse patricians that are being shoved down our throats by journalists who are really propagandists for tyrannical criminals. That virtually the entire American populace actually thinks this is not so is a crystal clear indication of what mindwashed and manipulated morons — willing to countenance the unjust mass murder of both its own citizens and innocent people around the world — the U.S. population has become. John Kaminski is the author of “America’s Autopsy Report,” a collection of his Internet essays seen on hundreds of websites around the world. More recently he has written “The Day America Died: Why You Shouldn’t Believe the Official Version of What Happened on September 11, 2001.” Soon to be released is his new collection of essays, titled “The Perfect Enemy.” For more information go to http://www.johnkaminski.com/