CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE. DEFANGING TEHRANYSAURUS REX

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Apr 18, 2010 3:06 PM PDT

This essay is dedicated to Azar Nifisi, whose brilliant Reading Lolita in Tehran revealed to the average American the painful experience of losing hard-won freedoms. In this poignant book, she helps the empathetic person understand the pain of being subject to the whims of men who wanted to control the thoughts and actions of others. Her undaunted courage shines through in her account of the resistance of a small group of women to those who invoke moral authority that they themselves cannot comprehend.

When I was attending Portland State University in the late 70s, the school was populated by a large segment of Iranian students sent there by the then-secular government or by their oil-rich parents. The latter could be recognized by the beefy Trans-Ams they invariably drove to impress American girls who were looking for excitement and a generous date who would provide a taste of the good life that many could not otherwise experience and with which the ads in the Western corporate media tantalized them.

The other group of Iranian students was comprised of those who were trying to understand and take home the more important lessons that living in a democracy could teach them. They hoped to better their lives and those of their families and friends upon their return home. Among them was a brilliant and studious young woman who I met when we were both tutoring other students. In my loneliness I worshipped this beautiful, idealistic patriot and lover of freedom.

In the more tolerant United States at that time, I and any young man or woman who wanted to attend college could do so because education was commonly understood to have a value to society. The corporations that had begun to seize power in America had not yet succeeded in crippling our system of higher education in their effort to squeeze the last public dollar for their profit instead of the needs of the People.

In the days before Reagan rose to power with the help of the corporatocracy, the American people maintained the fiction first challenged during the Vietnam era that we are all one people who had each risen through hard work in a society that understood the concept of a level playing field. This was our reward for freeing the world from the grip of Fascist tyranny at the cost of hundreds of thousands of young American lives. The so-called Greatest Generation had reaped the benefits that they and their children then enjoyed. We were the products of the resulting baby boom and innocently expected that we would continue America’s proud tradition of taking care of its workers and their families forever.

Events moved swiftly in those days. The Iranian students began demonstrating regularly at PSU. I watched with curiosity as these determined men and woman agitated for the American people to understand that the government of Reza Shah Pahlevi was a puppet of the CIA that had put the cowardly Shah into power. Pahlavi maintained his grip on the forcibly secularized Iran through a repressive regime backed by the Gestapo-like Savak. The universities flourished in the new society, which was secularized and allowed woman such as Nifiski to not only learn but to teach other young men and women.

The CIA had installed the Shah to assure the control of the Iranian oil supply for the benefit of their masters, the economic elite in the US and the oil rich countries of the Mideast. These were the nations that formed OPEC, the great little tool that American, British and French-based transnational oil corporations found so useful to maximize profits from oil by manipulating supply. Iran had made the mistake of nationalizing the rich oil fields that this criminal cabal considered its own. Among these allies were Goldman-Sachs and its friends in the IMF and the WTO. Also profiting from this arrangement were the various corporations internationally that comprised the military-industrial complex.

This arrangement was convenient for everybody concerned, except the citizens of the nations involved. Among them, only Americans as a whole failed to worry about the growing power of these international corporations and the increasing irrelevance of nations. They failed to recognize that 1984 was just around the corner. The Hydra that is the cabal of international criminals thus busied itself unencumbered in the task of enslaving the world.

They happily made war, subjugated the poor people of the Mideast and fed money to keep well-oiled the Israeli war machine that they thought could alone ensure the security of their joint enterprise. They pumped just enough oil to soak Europe of its wealth and subsidize the fat and happy middle class in the US. The Puppet Masters of the Senate used cheap oil in America to keep the middle class complacent and willfully ignorant through the skillful manipulation of the corporate media.

The media had become drunk with their success in revealing the threat to democracy of Watergate and CIA spying in America. In its stupor the Hydra grew stronger, feeding off the suffering of millions throughout the world. The media have not yet awaken, nor have the American people who depended on its integrity to understand the workings of its government, the former leaders of which had slunk off into the shadows.

It is amazing how fast the Puppetmasters of the fascist shadow government walked back from the dark side where the shadows dwelt and into the light of day. The vanguard of the re-emerging international Army of the Night was led by such traitors as Ollie North and G. Gordon Liddy. Both had either belonged to or worked hand in hand with the CIA and other minions of the Hydra to undermine democracy in America. These latter-day Benedict Arnolds were rewarded for their roles in the October surprise and Watergate with national radio shows.

The more deluded among the Greatest Generation listened to their confused rantings with rapt attention. They lionized the traitor North and nod their heads when Liddy told them to “shoot for the head” when gummint agents come to take their guns that they use them to rape their daughters under the guise of “religious freedom.” Individual freedom uber alles, they silently thought. The powerful just naturally have the right to treat the powerless as possessions, don’t they? They have earned it by servicing the nation and its Puppetmasters, after all.

The silent majority stayed silent while the counter-Revolutionaries proceeded to undermine the intent of the Founding Fathers and those who died to establish our inalienable right to self-determination. The traitorous psychopaths who were the principle owners of these international corporations set about acquiring and consolidating the mass media and brainwashing the eager youth of the far right into accepting the false doctrine of original intent. The more farsighted among them knew that in the end, the plan was to hand all power to the corporate traitors who established the Heritage Foundation, the Heritage Institution, “Liberty” University and the think tanks and law schools from whose dark halls sprang the likes of John Yoo, Bybee, Scalia, Alito, Roberts and the simple-minded sharecropper’s son, Uncle Thomas.

Others merely joined in the effort for profit, not realizing that they were not buying America but selling it out. This is the inevitable fate of a society that forgets that a democratic government is established only by the just consent of the governed and its purpose is to serve the people, provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare in order to secure the blessings of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights were once recognized to be the God-given and therefore inalienable right of men and women. In the cult of greed that arose around the false prophet Reagan, all this was forgotten and then lost.

Meanwhile, back in Iran the power of the people prevailed. The CIA puppet Shah Rezi Pahlavi fell to forces led by the Muslim Fundamentalists who the CIA had deliberately brainwashed into thinking that democracy was evil. Here in Portland, rich and poor Iranians alike cheered. Thank Allah almighty, they were free at last. Little did they know that they had let loose a force that would lead the nation to the brink of self-destruction. In an act of sheer madness, the Ayatollah’s men kidnapped 50 Americans under diplomatic protection. This was how these deluded pseudo-Muslim Fundamentalists slapped the face of the Great Satan whose face they clearly saw, while most Americans did not.

The result was that to save face after this colossal blunder, the Ayatollah made a deal with the devil that sealed their fate. They helped North, Poindexter and other traitors subvert the American government. Unsubtly manipulating the price of oil, OPEC colluded to bring about the recession that put Reagan into power in the stead of James Earl Carter, the peace monger.

Carter was and is a devout Christian who understands the need to eliminate America’s dependence on foreign oil through conservation. Arms were traded for hostages, money was exchanged and the wheels of injustice being properly oiled, the deed was done. The corporate media aided and abetted this coup by ridiculing Carter’s conservation efforts and promoting Reagan’s false promises of making the United States the “shining city on the hill.”

Congress failed to fulfill its responsibility to oversee an out of control CIA after North admitted his treason. Poindexter’s implausible denial of a central CIA role in the coup was accepted by the politicians in charge who feared that the people would be more upset by undergoing the ordeal of another impeachment trial so soon after Watergate than by the subversion of their government by the CIA on behalf of international corporations. Unfortunately they were right, or so proclaimed the corporate media.

Even more incredibly, the American people failed to take to the streets to Take Back America after the hunting of President Clinton produced a monkey trial that even they refused to buy into. It is astounding that even after demonstrating his willingness to compromise with the coup regime the persecution did not stop.

Clinton’s gift to the shadow government after the coup was signing on to the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Apparently, the man from Hope had lost hope that Americans would rise up and take re-establish democracy. Having thrown in his lot with the counter-Revolutionaries, he discovered that the corporate elite did not take kindly to having the Office of the President occupied by someone who had struggled up on his own and who wanted to represent the People. He was not fully appreciative of their important role in ruling the nation by virtue of birthright. It was out of a sense of duty as much as self-interest that the moneyed elite thought it necessary to destroy the Presidency of this aspiring leader of the ostensibly free world.

Perhaps Clinton’s mistake was that in his naiveté, he challenged the privilege of the medical-industrial complex without fully appreciating the extent to which the traitors now in control of the government also controlled the corporate media. Having allowed him to win the election, they set about tightening their control of the media in preparation for their final assault on democracy.

Now the stage is set for what Christians call Armageddon. According to the Mayans and Nostradamus, this outcome was so obvious that it was foreseeable thousands of years ago. It would appear that the End of the World as we Know it was destined to come about from the beginning of time, in a manner of speaking.

However, others believe that the prophecy of Armageddon was not a promise but a warning, one that Mohammed clearly described in the fourth to the last Sura. Humankind was created with free will and we may collectively choose to determine that the End of the World as we Know it will be a wonderful thing. If we can shift the collective human consciousness from survival of the fittest to survival and spiritual growth of all, it will be as if Heaven and Earth will have become one.

Those who live for wealth and power are headed for a fiery death. Whether it is the one that they expect to happen here on Earth or whether it will be in another dimension of existence, their end is near. Soldiers For Peace throughout the world outnumber them one million to one and we are not going to allow them to impose their design of worldwide slavery while we are alive to stop them.

We operate in cyberspace, where the Matrix is seen for the illusion that it is. We cannot be detected by those who lack the vision to see the world as we do. The world as it is teetering on the balance between stability and self-destruction. We do not choose for those who we love to die for the cause of allowing the apparently powerful to destroy humanity.

The easy way to avoid the war between Iran and Israel that both governments seem to be itching for is to establish an international consortium consisting of the United States, Israel, Russia, Germany and France. This group would under inspection build and launch a geosynchronous communications satellite above Tehran. The hardliners in the Iranian government can scream bloody murder, but if they shoot it down they will have to evacuate Tehran first or murder even more innocents than they are already doing. This would merely hasten the fall of the government of Iran and the Ayatollah, hereafter referred to as Tehranysaurus Rex, the King of Tyrants in our beleoved Persia. The will of today's Iranian students will not be defied if the US and Israel truly want peace.

ATT may cry foul at the thought of providing anyone with free Internet services, especially since the FCC recently approved the illegal merger of this behemouth with Comcast. The oil inndustry may whimper that if a free Iran opts out of OPEC, their splendid little arrangement will fall apart when Chavez joins in the effort to undermine their control of world oil prices. How, they will ask, can we justify never-ending war if neither oil nor terrorism can be used as an excuse?

Oh, well. No one ever promised them that they could rule the earth for a thousand years after Armageddon. Jesus is not coming down on a white horse with a flaming sword to slay the bad guys and save the faithful who only wait and do not save themselves. The last Jihad will be the first, a peaceful one in which the death of the ego is complete and the Eternal One becomes a stable entity of peace and harmony throughout the Universe.

In the words of REM (which also is a dream state):

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane.

Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn.

World serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs.

Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no.

Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height.

Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site.

Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furiesbreathing down your neck.

Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tetheredcrop.

Look at that low plane! Fine then.

Uh oh, overflow, population,common group, but it'll do.

Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed.

Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right.

You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, brightlight, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower.

Slash and burn,return, listen to yourself churn.

Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting.

Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.

Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down.

Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh,this means no fear - cavalier.

Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.

Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide.

Mount St. Edelite.Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.

Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic,slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

Rick Staggenborg, MD
Portland, Oregon

NOTE: It was pointed out to me after this was written that the anti-government forces in Iran are not all opposed to theocracy or the oppression of the religious leaders who run the country in their own interests. 

The US promotes "freedom" in Iran but the corporatocracy that owns Congress simply wants to work with the economic elite in Iran to make a profit at the expense of the people. It supports not democracy but fascism, as do these burgoise "reformers" in Iran. 


Here is an excellent article on the subject.

CHAPTER NINETY TWO. SOUND THE TRUMPET! THE BATTLE PLAN TO TAKE BACK THE AMERICAS.

Written by: Rick Staggenborg, MD on Jun 2, 2010 8:57 AM PDT

This chapter is dedicated to Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of the five nations who has inspired generations of Latin Americans to dream of freedom and democracy throughout the Americas. Like Buddha he was born a Brahmin among his people. It was the love and devotion of his Black slave nanny that saved him from falling victim to the dark Angel of his selfish nature and become a true Soldier For peace. Rejecting the privilege to which he was born, he never gave up the ideals he learned from his teachers. He spent his life fighting for all the People of Latin America.

It is a sad commentary on the tendency of men to think only in terms of tribes that exist to divide the wealth of the People among themselves that Bolivar felt compelled to declare himself dictator in order to save the people from the devastation that inevitable befalls a people who submit to rule by an oligarchy of the privileged. Although President Monroe was probably sincere when he declared that the United States would defend its brothers and sisters from European designs of conquest, the US itself soon gave in to the temptations of conquest.

Today we find ourselves faced with the prospect that the CIA, acting on behalf of a cabal of international corporate terrorists, will continue to sow havoc in a Latin America that remains divided by the selfishness of its own leaders. The dictators and strongmen who have ruled many of the nations of this region of the globe seem content to feast upon the bones of the People that they have sold into slavery for a few pieces of silver.

When I dream of a future in which all men and women live in harmony with nature in the fabled return of the Garden, I try to imagine a means by which we might unite the people in order to achieve Mankind’s dream of ending war. I have this vision that suddenly, there is a sonic boom and I look up to see Superman flying above, ready to save us from ourselves. Look! It’s a bird! No, it’s a plane! No, it’s Hugo Chavez! He has come to save us!

Bolivar was trained in the art of war by the very Spanish overlords who he successfully drove from the continent of South America. What a delicious irony it would be if the fascist generals who were trained in the School of the Americas to be the boot-licking lackeys of the CIA and the corporate terrorists for whom they toil would suddenly develop sentience. Perhaps they would realize that their actions are ultimately self-defeating. If they have any love at all for their children, they would turn their weapons on the agents of the CIA and the US military and run them out of Latin America.

If the US were a true representative democracy, we would elect leaders who spoke and acted in the interests of all the people of the United States rather than for the corporate criminals who have paid for their lavish propaganda campaigns that enable them to serve the Puppetmasters of the Senate. The People of the US are inherently good, as are People everywhere. If we were allowed a vote on every decision that an honest group of Senators would carry out, we would surely consider the interests of our neighbors in Latin America when acting on issues of mutual concern.

If only someone of courage and vision would arise in the United States who would stand against the corruption of the government by the selfish men to whom we have handed the tiller of the ship of state. All it would take is one voice rising above the clamor of the angry victims of their own selfishness to be heard proclaiming that the Empire has no clothes. We must provide that collective voice and elect individuals who will make it echo in the chambers of Congress.

The naked ambition of the Empire builders is to lead an international corporate cabal in enslaving the planet for a self-selected elite. If those of us can explain this to those who are hypnotized by the corporate media, it would be apparent to all citizens of this once-proud democracy. Every God-fearing citizen would recoil in horror at what our leaders have done to our brothers and sisters in the name of “peace and freedom” if they could only see behind the curtain and view the reality of what the United States has truly come to represent.

The simple act of introducing a Constitutional amendment on the floor of the Senate that would propose to abolish corporate personhood would have Earth-shattering consequences. If this senator would then challenge each of the other 99 Senators to openly choose between the People and these corporate criminal conspirators, there would still be time to save the planet from the threats of endless war, famine, pandemic and environmental destruction that are the Four Horseman whose hoof beats can be heard beating ever closer from off in the near future.

Good is truly stronger than evil, but the meek will not inherit the Earth until the assertive claim it in their name.  If enough of us believe that it is possible to save ourselves by listening to the Angels of our better nature, we will provide our own salvation. If there comes a day when the final battle between Good and Evil is played out upon the Earthly plane, together we can assure  that it will be a joyous one rather than the terror that the weak of faith fear. 

A restored democracy in the US need only join with the democratic forces being assembled to the South by our latter-day Bolivar and link with Canada, a free Europe and Australia to demand justice for the people of the Mideast, Asia, Russia, Africa and the subcontinent. The day of reckoning appears to be nearer than the faithless can imagine. Let us pray to whatever God  we can imagine that it will give us strength and guidance in the days to come. The battle of Evermore will not be won by faith alone.

In the immortal words of Robert Plant:




The Queen of Light took her bow and then she turned to go.
The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom and walked the night alone.


Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.
The Dark Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all.
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, race now to my bow.
Side by side we wait the might, of the darkest of them all.


I hear the horses thunder down in the valley below.
I'm waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.
The apples of the valley hold the seeds of happiness.
The ground is rich from tender care, which they do not forget, no, no.
Dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.


The apples turn to brown and black, the tyrant's face is red.
Oh, war is the common cry, pick up your swords and fly.
The sky is filled with good and bad, mortals never know.


Oh well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow.
Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.
The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath.
The drums will shake the castle wall, the Ringwraiths ride in black (ride on).


Sing as you raise your bow, (ride on) shoot straighter than before.
No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold.
Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light.
The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back, bring it back.


At last the sun is shining, the clouds of blue roll by.
With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes.
Oh, bring it back, bring it back...






Rick Staggenborg, MD


Roseburg, Oregon