PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR JUNE 3

On this day in 1943, U.S. Navy sailors and Marines clash with Latino youths In Los Angeles, California, in a confrontation that the news media of the day would soon christen the Zoot Suit Riots.

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After being arrested on suspicion of having broken into a Florida poolroom, Charles Gideon was put on trial and immediately found guilty, thanks mostly to the fact that he couldn't afford a lawyer. In Florida at the time, that meant he had to defend himself. It also pretty much guaranteed that he was jail-bound. Afterwards, while in jail, Gideon made multiple appeals on the grounds that he had a constitutional right to be represented in court by a professional lawyer. Eventually, his case made its way to the Supreme Court, which declared: "a fair trial cannot be realized if the poor man charged with the crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him." And that's how, on this day in 1960, the ceaseless whining of one petty criminal permanently changed the way the USA’s legal system works... for the better! A rare thing, indeed.

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On this day in 1968, a notoriously unstable radical feminist by the name of Valerie Solanas tries to assassinate leading New York “scene” artist Andy Warhol, shooting him three times at near point-blank range. Warhol survived the attack, but sales of Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto went through the roof. “SCUM” is an acronym for “Society for Cutting Up Men”, and most editions feature an image of a box-cutter on the cover. Nice.

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On this day in 1989, armed troops kill hundreds of pro-democracy student demonstrators in the streets of Beijing. Within months, President George Herbert Walker “Poppy” Bush grants China "most-favored nation" trading status. Understanding the Bush Crime Family’s long-standing entanglements in the region helps explain why he did so.

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Also on this day in 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Ruhullah Khomeini -- the intellectual father and popular/populist spearhead of Iran's fascinatingly paradoxical Islamic Revolution in 1979 -- dies of internal bleeding at the age of 86.

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On this day in 2011, after spending over 8 years behind bars for helping a terminally ill man end his life on camera for an episode of 60 Minutes, doctor, author and death-with-dignity activist Jack Kevorkian passes away due to kidney failure at the age of 83.

THE NET: THE UNABOMBER, LSD AND THE INTERNET - A STUDY GUIDE

CLIP AND SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

A CONCORDANCE 
or a series of notes and thoughts on 

THE NET, THE UNABOMBER, LSD AND THE INTERNET

a documentary by Lutz Dammbeck (2003) 

The following notes were taken by myself during two separate viewings of the film. The text presented includes all of the subtitles from the film (indicated by quotation marks), as well as a number of observations, side references and potential avenues for further inquiry that came to mind as I watched. The reasons for my engaging in this admittedly somewhat pedantic exercise are twofold. Firstly, I do it because I believe this film to be an important and insufficiently propagated document in the field of parapolitics, and anything I can do to help get it seen by more people - and, in particular, the RIGHT people - I see as worth doing. Secondly, I wanted to create an easy-to-use text and image based "concordance" that both documents and compliments the original film. I leave it for you readers to decide whether or not I have succeeded on that count. - YOPJ - 26/04/2012

PRELUDE 

"In 1930, Viennese mathematician Kurt Godel shakes the foundations of mathematics with his incompleteness theorems. He demonstrates that in every formal logical system there are problems that are not solvable or conclusively determinable. The truth is superior to provability."

Mathematician Kurt Godel

THE NET 

We begin on a commuter plane travelling from Frankfurt to New York. Director Lutz Dammbeck explains that he has some interviews lined up for a film he's been working on about the evolution of information technologies. But lately he's become distracted. He explains:

THE NET - THE UNABOMBER, LSD AND THE INTERNET

In 2003, German filmmaker Lutz Dammbeck released an independently produced documentary film entitled Das Netz, the English title being The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and The Internet. Since its debut, it has slowly been acquiring a reputation as a must-watch production among serious students of conspiracy, secret histories and parapolitics in general. 

In my opinion, this is a film that deserves much more attention than it has been given, and it needs to be seen by a lot more people, for a long list of reasons that will become obvious once you've watched it, which you can either do here, using the embedded video provided below, or on Youtube.com, where the subtitles will probably be a lot easier to read.

Unfortunately, the film's official website is a German language only. Unless you're one of those lucky Fritzes and Friedas who speak it, that's too bad, because the site seems to have a pretty active forum section.

I am bringing this film to your attention now because I have nearly completed a lengthy "study guide" for it, which I intend to post here sometime during the next 24 hours. In it, I flesh out some of the concepts Dammbeck touches on only briefly, tease out some potential implications and offer my own, alternate explanations to some of the information presented in the film. I also offer suggestions for further avenues of research to compliment and broaden your understanding of the rich bounty of information presented in this remarkable film.

And so, in closing, I urge you to watch this film, and keep watching this space for my upcoming study guide!

Cheers!

YOPJ

"ANONYMOUS" PUBLISHES OPEN LETTER TO CITIZENS OF U.S.A.

If you don't already know about Anonymous - or if you think you do, but aren't really sure - then you should probably read the excellent Wikipedia article about this multifaceted participatory online movement's origins, achievements, scandals and goals.

Although it originally spawned from a number of unrelated Internet message boards and humor sites - 4chan, Ebaum's World, Encyclopedia Dramatica and others - almost ten years ago, Anonymous today is far more than just a loose affiliation of hacker/trolls who occasionally venture out of their mothers' basements to smear pubic hair and petroleum jelly on unsuspecting Scientologists. It is a genuine phenomenon that is evolving into an important - some would have us believe dangerous - social movement.

Pinning down Anonymous isn't easy. Anyone can call themselves a representative and claim to be initiating an action on the group's behalf. Self-declared members are free to join in on these actions, or not. Some Anonymous campaigns - such as their anti-Scientology crusade, their international anti-censorship activities  and their campaigns in support of WikiLeaks - enjoy broad-based support and substantial approval. Other stunts - such as bombarding epileptic support group websites with flashing videos designed to trigger seizures in the photo-sensitive - not so much. However, since Anonymous has no leaders, collects no dues and maintains no headquarters, it is difficult, if not impossible, to bestow credit or lay blame.

Which makes the fact that they've published an "Open Letter to the Citizens of the United States of America" not only odd, but downright baffling. It raises all sorts of questions. For instance, if Anonymous has no leadership, who wrote this? Is it a hoax? And, if so, how would anyone ever know? If Anonymous attempts to deny authorship of this (or any other) document, that denial would be equally unverifiable, and thus suspect.

A quick perusal of this Open Letter reveals three things:

• First, Anonymous could use a good copy editor. The text of this document contains spelling mistakes, dangling participles and mixed metaphors galore. 
• Second, despite a few nods to "fair taxation" and "states' rights", it appears as though Anonymous is planting its flag firmly on the left side of America's political playing field. Ending corporate personhood, making healthcare a human right, ensuring clean air, water and food, enacting prison reform and decriminalizing marijuana... their list of demands reads more like a High Times editorial than a revolutionary manifesto. 
• Finally, make no mistake about it, Anonymous wants YOU. They are recruiting. And this, despite the fact that, in a number of important ways, "they" don't even exist.

Personally, I'm still up in the air about Anonymous. I certainly approve of their anti-Scientology activities, and find their efforts to support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks to be commendable, even noble. On the other hand, some of their goofier, more mean-spirited pursuits - the "lulz" element of their shenanigans - leave a bad taste in my mouth. But that's just me.

After the page break, below, I will publish the full text of Anonymous' Open Letter for y'all to peruse at your leisure. It's being published all over the place, but I figure we might as well warehouse a copy here, as part of the Useless Eater Blog's efforts at archiving potentially important parapolitical documents. Where possible, I have retained the spelling and grammatical errors. Enjoy!