Economic Crisis and the Politics of Fear-Obama’s Re-Election: The Shell Game of Lesser-Evilism

Workers Vanguard No. 1013	23 November 2012

Economic Crisis and the Politics of Fear-Obama’s Re-Election: The Shell Game of Lesser-Evilism

For a Workers Party That Fights for a Workers Government!

On all sides the 2012 U.S. presidential election can be captured in one word: fear. Amid a persistent economic crisis, which has left working people in ruin across the globe, the Republicans thought they could ride back into the White House on the votes of the Tea Party yahoos, Christian fundamentalists and other such reactionaries who believe that Obama and the “takers” are driving America down the road to a socialist Sodom and Gomorrah. Against the backdrop of millions of unemployed and a growing army of homeless, hungry and destitute, Mitt Romney reviled the “47 percent” of this society who “believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” As Romney called on the nearly 12 million “illegal” immigrants in the U.S. to “self deport,” other Republican candidates raved about “legitimate rape” and reveled in biblical scripture against gays and other “deviants.”

When measured against their Republican opponents, it wasn’t difficult for the Democrats to come off as the “lesser evil.” They didn’t even have to promise much of anything to the working class and the oppressed. A couple of sops were thrown as Obama allowed that his personal views had “evolved” toward tepidly endorsing gay marriage and granted some undocumented immigrant youth a temporary reprieve from deportation. Labor got nothing, not even a repeat of the empty promises from last time around to push through the Employee Free Choice Act card checkoff for union organizing—an effort that the union officialdom has simply dropped. This year nothing was necessary to piece off the union misleaders, who once again rallied the troops and spent massive amounts of union funds to get out the vote for the Democrats. As for the increasingly indigent black masses, the most they’ve gotten from the Obama White House is a lecture to pull themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps.

While the hope and enthusiasm aroused by the election of America’s first black president may have waned, there remains a deep sense of racial pride and solidarity with Obama among the black population. This was reinforced by the backlash from Republican Party “birthers,” who question Obama’s U.S. citizenship. In these types, black people correctly perceive the forces of racist reaction that want to roll back the remaining gains of the civil rights movement, seen not least in various unsuccessful schemes to suppress black voter turnout. The reactionaries also want to take a hatchet to the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to former black slaves after the Civil War and extended this right to anyone else born in the U.S., namely the children of immigrants. What black people feared was seen at the campus of “Ole Miss” on election night, when white students rioted after learning the results, screaming racial epithets and burning an Obama-Biden election sign.

By the count of the Electoral College, Obama won handily, and he beat Romney in the popular vote by roughly three percentage points. Romney captured the lion’s share of the white vote, particularly men and particularly in the vast majority of the states of the former Confederacy as well as the rural areas of the “heartland.” Obama was backed by well over 90 percent of the black electorate and more than 70 percent of Latinos and Asian Americans, also getting the support of single women, young people, gays and families with annual incomes under $50,000.

Although Obama’s 2008 election was celebrated as the beginning of the “end of racism,” black people overall are far worse off today than they were four years ago. Black unemployment has spiked, wages have flatlined and median wealth has crashed. The wave of foreclosures has black families staying in homeless shelters at seven times the rate of whites. This is not to mention the White House-led assault on public education that has written off ghetto schools. The stark reality is that black oppression, which is structurally embedded in American capitalism, is not going to be overcome short of socialist revolution, whereby the working class rips the economy out of the hands of the racist capitalist rulers and reorganizes it on an egalitarian socialist basis.

The Devil Didn’t Make Him Do It

On the heels of the president’s re-election, liberals, the trade-union bureaucracy and black Democratic Party politicians are peddling the myth that “now Obama will fight for us.” By their lights, Obama was prevented from doing so in his first term by the economic and other “messes,” such as the imperialist occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, left behind by his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

As we wrote at the time of Obama’s 2008 election:

“From the standpoint of the international working class and oppressed there is nothing to celebrate in Obama’s victory and much to fear. Enthusiasm among large sections of the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, is justified. After nearly eight years of one of the most incompetent and widely despised regimes in recent U.S. history, they now have in Obama a more rational face for their brutal, irrational system. Obama has also inspired illusions in the trappings of bourgeois democracy, the means by which the capitalists disguise their rule with the appearance of a popular mandate. Abroad, Obama provides an invaluable facelift for U.S. imperialism, the main enemy of the world’s working people.”

— “Obama: Commander-in-Chief of Racist U.S. Imperialism,” WV No. 925, 21 November 2008

Since then, Obama has cut the losses for U.S. imperialism by drawing down the number of troops in Iraq, leaving behind a residual military force to help police the region, and is preparing an eventual pullout from Afghanistan. At the same time, his administration has ratcheted up the global “war on terror,” with the numbers of those killed by U.S. drones soon to top 3,000 under a president who keeps his own “terrorist” kill list. While liberals hail White House plans to trim some Pentagon spending—a bit of economic correction by the ruling class—this will not in the least cut into the military predominance of U.S. imperialism, which spends more on its war machine than the next 14 largest spenders combined. On the home front, with its electronic and other monitoring of the purported “enemy within,” the Obama administration has outstripped the Bush-Cheney government in assaulting the constitutional rights of the population.

As for the notion that it was Bush administration plans that forced Obama’s hand in bailing out the Wall Street bankers whose financial swindles had triggered a global economic meltdown, let’s hear it from the man himself. Not long after Obama came into office, he had his first meeting with these high-rolling perps. In his book Confidence Men (2011), Ron Suskind cites a top banking executive: “The president had us at a moment of real vulnerability. At that point, he could have ordered us to do just about anything, and we would have rolled over.” Instead, Obama assured the assembled titans of U.S. finance capital: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.... I’m not out there to go after you. I’m protecting you.”

Here is a pure expression of the role of the Democratic Party as one of the dual parties of capital. Its occasional posture as the “friend” of labor, minorities and the poor is aimed at heading off class and social struggle against the capitalist rulers. The lunacy of the Republican Party is simply an extreme expression of a decaying system whose masters see in the present economic crisis an opportunity to further starve the poor, bust the unions, drive down wages and slash such social programs as remain. The Democrats do the same thing because they serve the same interests; they just try to put a “kinder, gentler” face on it. In his 27 September column on the presidential contest, titled “From Hope to Fear,” America’s foremost class-war prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, summed it up: “Truth is, both are essentially advocates of austerity. One wants to slap people with it; the other slaps you as well. He just says he hated to do it.”

That the presidential election was among the most polarized on racial, social and, in many ways, class lines in recent U.S. history speaks to the anger and discontent at the base of this society. But such discontent is massively distorted by the electoral circus, a keystone of the whole fraud of bourgeois democracy. In The State and Revolution (1917), Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin succinctly described bourgeois elections as providing voters with the chance to “decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people.”

As revolutionary Marxists, it is our purpose to fight to translate discontent among the toiling masses into a conscious understanding that the working class needs its own party—not a parliamentary vehicle vying to be the administrators of the capitalist state but a party championing the cause of all the exploited and oppressed in the fight for workers rule. A central obstacle to this fight is the labor bureaucracy, which has long subordinated the struggles and interests of the proletariat to the class enemy, particularly through the agency of the Democratic Party.

The Labor Lieutenants of U.S. Imperialism

The AFL-CIO tops are patting themselves on the back for their role in Obama’s re-election, particularly in such battleground states as Ohio and Wisconsin. These two have also been battleground states for labor, with Ohio auto workers and Wisconsin public workers getting pummeled thanks to their misleaders’ prostration before the Democrats. In 2009, the United Auto Workers tops worked hand in glove with Obama on the GM and Chrysler bailouts, which wrested massive concessions from a union that was once the powerhouse of the labor movement. In 2011, the anger of tens of thousands of workers and their allies who rallied against Wisconsin Republican governor Scott Walker’s union-busting assault on public workers was channeled into a campaign to recall Walker and replace him with an anti-union Democrat. Even that crime didn’t pay, as the recall went down to defeat.

Such has not curbed the enthusiasm of self-proclaimed socialists like the Workers World Party, whose editorial “Obama Wins, Struggle Begins” proclaims: “While unions have been declared dead many times by bourgeois pundits, they showed their muscle, going door to door in places like Wisconsin” (Workers World, 7 November). What a shameless statement of the bankruptcy of the reformist left, whose politics mirror those of the labor bureaucracy whom they serve as water boys.

Far from “showing muscle,” the labor officialdom is so averse to employing the strike weapon to defend what exists of organized labor—much less to replenish its ranks through organizing the millions of unorganized workers—that in Michigan they put up a referendum to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution. To make absolutely clear where they stand, the bureaucrats explicitly allowed that lawmakers could ban public employee strikes! Even with such reassurances, this measure sparked an all-out propaganda counteroffensive and was handily defeated. No wonder: the union misleaders were appealing to a voting public that includes the big bosses, small businessmen, preachers and others for whom the unions are a scourge.

The rights of workers to organize, strike, picket and shut down production have never been codified in the Constitution. The reason is simple: they collide with the only actual guaranteed rights in this society, the property rights of the capitalist owners that are the foundation for the profits they extract through the exploitation of labor. Everything of value that workers have won has been gained through hard-fought, often bloody, class battles against the employers and their state.

With Obama now turning his attention to the government’s supposed fiscal crisis, the name of the game for the labor tops is mobilizing the ranks to back him. Two days after the elections, the union bureaucracy organized rallies in more than 100 cities to demand higher taxes on the rich and no cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry explained: “We expect to have the president’s back on the agenda that the voters just declared support for,” adding that “the president has always said he needs a movement behind his mandate” (New York Times, 13 November).

The very idea that the U.S. economy is about to take a nose dive off a “fiscal cliff” is an invention. As even the New York Times (15 November) admitted, manufactured budget crises have been a convenient means, going back to the Reagan administration, of enforcing “unpopular tax and spending actions.” Playing the race card by decrying mythical black “welfare queens” living off the tax dollars of “hard-working” Americans, the Republican Reagan manufactured a debt crisis to shred the “war on poverty” programs that were enacted to buy social peace following the mass ghetto upheavals of the 1960s. But it took Democratic president Bill Clinton to finally eliminate “welfare as we know it.” As he did during the 2011 “debt ceiling” crisis, Obama has now made it perfectly clear that he is willing to strike a “grand bargain” with the Republicans that would cut billions from programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as long as they throw him a bone on the Bush tax cuts.

In a 7 November editorial, Socialist Worker online, publication of the International Socialist Organization (ISO), declares: “We Don’t Want ‘Four More-of-the-Same Years’.” The key for them, as always, is to make the Democrats fight. In the words of Chicago Teachers Union vice president and ISO supporter Jesse Sharkey: “Democrats respond when they are pushed.... If the wind’s blowing hard enough they’ll move” (London Guardian, 9 November). No doubt in the offing is the ritual huffing and puffing by the reformist left to demand that Obama “tax the rich” to provide money for jobs, education, welfare and other programs.

The banks and corporations are sitting on mountains of cash, the ill-gotten gains of a system based on the exploitation of the many for the profits of the few. The problem is that you’re not going to get your hands on it by appealing to the capitalist rulers to reorder their priorities to serve human needs. Contrary to the bourgeois-democratic myth of government by and for the people, the policies of U.S. imperialism are determined not by the electorate or by “pressure from below” but by the interests of the capitalist ruling class, as overseen by Democrats and Republicans alike. To win what’s necessary, the working class has to smash the rule of the bourgeoisie! What’s needed is a workers government that expropriates the capitalists’ productive wealth and establishes a rationally planned socialist economy.

It Is Desperately Necessary to Fight!

On election night, dejected FOX-TV commentator Bill O’Reilly blamed demographics for the results, lamenting: “It’s not a traditional America anymore. And there are 50 percent of the voting public who want stuff.... The white establishment is now the minority.” It is worth noting that white Christian fundamentalists, first introduced into the political mainstream not by the Republicans but under Democratic Party president Jimmy Carter, have lost political sway. But it is not as if they ever represented the views of the majority of the population. Rather, they were a convenient ideological battering ram wielded by the capitalist rulers to roll back the gains of the civil rights movement, regiment and “morally rearm” the population to ward off social upheaval and advance the Cold War against “godless Communism” abroad.

With millions unemployed or scrambling to get by through miserably paid part-time work, with many thrown out of their homes, with pension and health care benefits looted and lengthening lines for whatever public assistance is available, people do indeed “want stuff,” like a decent job, a place to live, food, education for their children, health care. The Republicans overplayed their “kill ’em all, god will know his own” glorification of robber baron capitalism. At the same time, the decades of betrayals by the fakers sitting atop the unions have encouraged the U.S. rulers in the arrogant belief that they can get away with further impoverishing the working class, starving the ghetto and barrio poor and killing the sick and aged. But it is not possible to eliminate the class struggle, which is born of the irreconcilable conflict between labor and its exploiters.

Much pressure has been building at the base of this society, and at some point it can and will explode. Harnessing and directing this anger toward the eradication of a system based on exploitation and rooted in racial oppression is, at bottom, a question of leadership. The key to unlocking the social power that lies in the hands of the multiracial working class is to break the political chains forged by the trade-union misleaders that have shackled labor to its exploiters. To end the ravages produced by the anarchic system of production for profit requires forging a revolutionary workers party. Defending the interests of workers, blacks, immigrants and others against the exploiters, such a party would provide the necessary leadership for sweeping away the entire system of capitalist wage slavery through proletarian socialist revolution. 

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin-In The Juke Box Rock And Roll Night, Circa 1958

Jake LeFleur (nee Jeanbon, but no one called him that, except old country mere and grandmere called him that, not if you didn’t want as much corner boy trouble as you could handle, maybe more. Jake, like many French-Canadian (F-C) next generation guys wanted none of that old country patios-church bow down-poor boy from hunger stuff but to be a pure vanilla American be-bop daddy and bon this and bon that was not part of the program, not against the Downeast Yankee and Irish toughs) had it bad, had it bad as a man (young man, okay, twenty-three) could have it for a girl (oops, young woman, twenty-two) and still be able to breath, breath normally.

And she, Marnie Capet she, the object of one Jake LeFleur’s palsied breath, knew that hard fact, and depended on it for a time to keep Jake in that state.But before you say “dames what can you do with them, or without them” like all of Jake’s corner boys whom he hung around with in front of Jimmy Jake’s Diner I (run by Jacques Jean LeBlanc who had enough sense to anglo-up the names of his establishments, that one on Atlantic Avenue, number II, for the touristas and blue-haired lady luncheon specials and the one on Main Street, number I, that catered to the younger set, and that had a be-bop bop jukebox with every possible tune for the music hungry young to deposit their three for a quarter selections in) said every time they heard the latest installment of the Marnie leading Jake by the nose saga hear her side. Then, perhaps, you will not worry so much about the how and whys of Jake’s breathing.

Marnie, for all the world to know, for all the important world to know in 1958 in Olde Saco, Maine, and that meant her friends, her friends known since high school, if not before, now mainly working alongside of her in the front offices of the MacAdams Textile Mills which drove the town’s economy, her girls, whom she hung around on Friday and Saturday nights in front of, guess, Jimmy Jake’s Diner (the one on Main Street, naturally) , had been minding her own business when one Jake LeFleur came swooping down on her a few months before. And she would swear on a stack of seven, hell, seventy sealed bibles (as all her “corner girls” would attest to after they had heard the latest installment of the Jake leading Marnie by the nose saga) that she had no intention of finding herself riding in Jake’s ’55 two-toned souped-up Chevy after a few minutes of Jake smooth talk. But she did, although she would also swear, at least for public consumption, that she had a problem breathing when she found herself in that position (or later in more intimate positions, as she would slyly allude to when describing her latest tryst date with Jake.)

But at some point Jake, or maybe Marnie, it was never clear, discovered two things, one, that Jake was crazier about Marnie that she was about him, and, two, more importantly , Marnie was taking more than a few peeks at a new boy in town, Bernie Albert, who if one could believe this, had neither a car, hot or otherwise, nor had the least inclination to hang around Jimmy Jake’s Diner (I or II) because he was crazy for the sea, and crazy for writing stuff about the sea once he found the best spots over at Olde Saco Beach (naturally later including the exclusive lovers’lane hot spot at the Seal Rock end).

Bernie came in like a breath of fresh air and before long one did not see Marnie Capet riding, front seat riding, in any funny old ’55 Chevy. She was breathing the sea air down at the beach after walking there with Bernie. She had decided that she had one chance at getting out from under that secretarial job at the mill, getting out from under Jake-or-name-the-car-crazy-guy cruising Main Street, getting out from under hanging in front of Jimmy Jake’s (number and then, inevitably blue-haired number II like her mother and her weekly friends luncheon) with her girls discussing what to play next on that damn jukebox, getting out under from under about six kids and money enough to support only about two, and getting out, well, just getting out from under.

Now the tale turns back to Jake though, Jake of the thousand ‘chicken run’ victories(for the clueless that is two guys, two corner boys guys usually, and usually from different corners, going one on one in their respective automobiles at two in the morning, or thereabouts , down at that previously mentioned Seal Rock end of Olde Saco Beach to decide who was the max daddy of the boss car night, simple), Jake of the hard boy corner boy society in front of Jimmie Jake’s Diner I (who once chain- whipped a guy, a guy from the corner in front of Mama’s Pizza Parlor, just for being, no, breathing on his corner without permission), spurned Jake.

And before you wonder what chain-whip, slice and dice, run over with his car hell our boy Jake was going to rain down on one Bernie Albert for “stealing “his Marnie (a serious matter in po’ boy Olde Saco where your property girl meant something, especially twenty-something which meant marriage and those six kids Marnie was fretting over was your fate) you should know this. Not only did you not see Marnie riding in that Chevy, that boss Chevy as anyone in town, anyone that counted would have told you, meaning the habitués of Jimmy Jake’s I but you did not see Jake riding around either. If you can believe this, Jake was still carrying a big torch for Marnie and had taken to his room to write her a letter begging her to come back. And since he was not a scholar like Bernie, and since he wanted to note her upcoming birthday he played the Tune Weavers’Happy, Happy Birthday Baby to help him through task, and settle his uneasy breathing.

P.S. Marnie made good career choice, well eventually she did, in the short term she fell back to the Olde Saco F-C ethos and ten generations of same old, same old and let Jake’s birthday letter sway her. So for a few weeks you again saw Marnie Capet tight-ass against Jake in his Chevy. And Bernie walking solo down at Olde Saco Beach. Then mad Jake go the smart idea that Bernie, like that other unfortunate mentioned previously, needed a chain-whipping to restore order the universe. Bernie took his beating like a man everyone agreed, and Jake took his nickel’s worth up at Shawshank. Bernie and Marnie were married in 1960 after Bernie finished graduate school at Bowdoin.

From The Pen Of Joshua Lawrence Breslin-When Bob Dylan Ruled The Folk Minute, Circa 1962

“Hey, Peter Paul, help me out tonight will you? Jenny’s cousin Joslyn is in town. Lynette promised her she could come with us to the Oleo Coffeehouse tonight for the start of the summer local talent concert series and she needs a date. She is supposed to be nice, she is from New York City, a senior at New York University, and she knows all about the folk scene there and about all the latest folk singers and poems and stuff,”Jeff Murphy quick- talked (the only way that he knew how to talk ever since that day one of Freshman year three years ago where they had met in the bookstore line and it turned out they were both going to be in same Western Civilization survey class whether it was trying to hard press Peter Paul into writing a term paper for him or, as now, a simple Lynette-inspired favor) over the phone to his friend Peter Paul Markin. Peter Paul was intrigued by this prospect both because she was an older woman , a senior, (as it turned out just a few months older given the vagaries of time and place when one started elementary school) and because he had over the previous several months gotten caught up in the emerging folk wave then splashing through young America in the year 1962 so he said sure.

Peter Paul, as was his way in those days around girls (and around his more intellectual friends) dug into his pile of folk music, folk records and folk newsletters in order to be able to carry on a civil conversation, or what he considered a civil conversation, with Joslyn that night. He was especially worried that he know every arcane fact in the folk world to impress a New York City girl who had actually been to Mecca, the Village, been to the clubs like the Gaslight, walked the nervous neon streets like McDougall, and had imbibed his idea of folk chic. Funny, he thought to himself, as he poured through a copy of Arise and Sing to make sure he knew the words to Tom Doulas (no, not that faux folk Tom Dooley that the vanilla Kingston Trio sang on televised hootenannies for the great unwashed , the real version out of the back roads of Tennessee about that murderous night, and his fate) a year or so before he used to laugh at what he called “beats,” guys with beards, bad hair, bad breathe, baggy pants and brown flannel shirts when he took his midnight swings through Harvard Square who had their guitars out singing serious protest songs, goof car car car songs, and some mountain hollows stuff , traditional they called it, long black guitar case in front in case anybody accidently drop some change in. And “beat” girls too, long hair, very long hair that looked like they had ironed it (they had) , colorful dresses (short) showing dimpled bare legs, some very well-turned , sandals, and , oh, angelic voices like in some stardust memory, although he never laughed at them, the girls, or thought of laughing at them, on the off chance that one might smile his way.

He had been strictly a rock and roll man, digging that be-bopping sound like a lot of 1950s growing up kids, guys especially, after being forced fed on mother and father Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page and Perry Como vanilla stuff. Raw rockabilly Sun Record magic by hard luck blue suede shoes shod Carl Perkins, flaming piano man Jerry Lee Lewis flailing away on High School Confidential on the back of some off-hand truck and driving every girl within fifteen miles wild, and with wild thoughts too, bopping, bopping away the night before kissing his cousin, Roy the Boy going down the road running scare, scared as hell, and why shouldn’t he when some girlfriend’s ex came back to carry her away, Buddy Holly looking for Peggy Sue, Mary Lou, Betty Sue, or someone to while away the night with, Chuck Berry carrying on with every sweet little sixteen in sight, and getting away with it until he started messing with Mister’s women in that 1950s segregated night, and, of course, Elvis, the king, the king before he became the king and was hungry, girl hungry, money hungry, respect hungry just like every Peter Paul Markin who spent hours working on that snarl, that hip movement, that max daddy hiccup in his voice.

Or maybe, a little, be-bop blues as they filtered out of Mister Lee’s Blues Hour from Chicago caught on the radio on late Sunday nights when the wind was right and the station was amped up. Rolling right over Big Joe,yah, Big Joe Turner talking, talking kind of salaciously (but what knew he of salacious then, he just dug the beat, the big man’s negro streets beat) about some shaking smooth brown woman, and maybe having a little luck with that fresh talk, who knows, Muddy Waters, man-child, man-child in the promise land, the nineteen year old honey promise land, playing Hootchie Gootchie Man, for real, the howl, Howlin’ Wolf , sweating like a pig, a big old pig, harmonica half way up his throat asking how many more years, asking about some damn little red rooster getting all the hens wild, Elmore James, max daddy guitarist , crying to high heaven about the sky crying, and about his fantastic cover of old boy Robert Johnson’s Dust My Broom, and bad boy, tina-less Ike Turner jamming those keys on Rocket 88 as close to rock as you could get and not be white to make a young kid’s head whirl (and they did).

One Sunday Peter Paul was trying to get that Chicago station (always a fickle proposition on his transistor radio especially when sea winds were up) when he heard this gravelly-voiced guy singing something out of some old mountain hollows or something like that, a song called Come All You Fair And Tender Ladies. The guy singing it, who he later found out was Dave Von Ronk from Brooklyn, sounded like some latter day Jehovah calling his flock home (sheep or people, or both). Peter Paul was hooked and listened to the rest of the show. He didn’t remember all the names of the songs or performers, maybe a little Tom Rush doing a cover of Bukka White ‘s Panama Limited, Eric Von Schmidt doing Joshua’s Gone Barbados, an Alice Stuart cover of the Carter Family’s Gold Watch And Chain, Josh White’s One Meatball , stuff like that, but the next day he went to Charlie’s Records over in Kenmore Square and picked up what that shop considered folk, some Leadbelly, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie stuff and he was double-hooked.

That date night he went with Jeff, Lynette and Joslyn over to the Oleo and had a good time, as they drank bitter (bitter to his plebeian taste) expresso coffee and some light pastries while listening to some local guy, a guy with a beard, bad hair, bad breathe, baggy pants and brown flannel shirt who had his guitars out(and mandolin) singing serious protest songs, goof car car car songs, and some mountain hollows stuff , traditional he called it, his long black guitar case in front of him, opened, in case anybody accidently drop some change in (in the coffeehouses the rule usually was you paid the cover, and for the eats and drinks, anything for the performer was discretionary, the guy that night was worth two bucks, and Joslyn threw in a buck of her own).

Although Joslyn was indeed as nice as advertised (long hair, very long hair that looked like she had ironed it (she had, as he later found out), peasant blouse with scarf around her neck, colorful dress (short) showing bare legs, very well-turned , de riguer sandals, and , oh, an angelic voice as she sang along with the performer (hence the sing-along folk tradition encouraged ) like in some Peter Paul stardust memory, she had a problem, a Peter Paul eyes problem. Or maybe better put Peter Paul had the problem. She was way too knowledgeable about the folk scene for Peter Paul. At one point he was sitting there in silence as she went on and on about the Village. Mostly what she said was that a new wave was coming, we, meaning them, the kids then, were ready to bust out and make a newer world and folk music would be the cement that united everything. Powerful stuff.

She said that a young guy, a young guy hanging around the bars and coffeehouses, places like Geddes Folk City, was writing up a storm, a storm to make a storm. She asked Peter Paul if he had heard Bob Dylan’s latest Blowin’ In The Windthat was becoming a national anthem for the youth who wanted to change the world and change it now. Peter Paul blushed, blushed crimson red or redder maybe. He had never heard of Bob Dylan. That night after the show asking off–handedly how long she was in town (the whole summer as it turned out since she was going to be working as a research assistant in some Harvard library system program) he decided against asking her out again (partially because he was sure that she would turn him down, after not knowing every arcane fact about folk music, and the faux pas on the Dylan thing) and let it go at that as the foursome parted company in front of the Oleo and he headed to catch the Red Line to Park Street. Next day though he was at Charlie’s Record Store. End of story, end of Joslyn story.

Well, not quite. As it turned out Joslyn didn’t understand why Peter Paul had been so quiet after the Dylan remarks and kind of cool when they had split up (not knowing then what a mad man know every fact in front of him, the arcaner the better, when he was “on” something and had been that way since junior high school over in North Adamsville when he hung around with Frankie Larkin who made that kind of knowledge trick into an art form, and had a girl hanging off every arm so it stuck). And she mentioned that mere fact to her cousin Jenny who mentioned it to Lynnette who you know damn well mentioned it to one Jeffrey Murphy, who to keep the peace, the Lynette peace, mentioned it to Peter Paul. Peter Paul just shrugged it off though informing Jeff (who knew of Peter Paul madnesses and had successfully used that knowledge to cadge more than one free written term paper when he had been hard pressed to submit one) that he didn’t think he and Joslyn were a fit. Jeff conveyed that information back down the pipeline.

A few days later Joslyn called Peter Paul on the telephone, and asked him pretty please (his version) if he could help her with a project that she was stymied on. She had heard (from Lynette via Jeff as he found out later) that he knew something about blues music, and about the rhythm and blues, and she wondered if Big Joe Turner’s version of Shake, Rattle and Roll was really the start of rock and roll or what. That started a two hour phone conversation about rock, about the blues, and about how Mr. Bob Dylan used the latter to work his talking blues magic. Of course it was a no-brainer that Mr. Big Joe Turner ‘s version was the max daddy foundation stone of rock and roll. And along the way during that conversation as the arcane facts piled up on each other Joslyn would keep saying “really, I didn’t know that.” Oh, and not so subtly kept asking if he had any time to help her further on her project. Yah, he said, yah, he had all summer. And he did, and they did .

P.S. Peter Paul and Joslyn would, after their summer tryst, meet again a number of times over the next several years, dated sometimes, lived together a couple of times, and each time she got the chance Joslyn would “remind” Peter Paul of that first Oleo coffeehouse date and his lack of knowledge of Bob Dylan then. And he would mention that “trick” telephone call she pulled (she, in fact, knew almost as much about the blues when she called as he did, as he found out later). Their meetings would many times coincide with one or the other’s being in New York or Boston together trying to fight that desperate fight for the “newer world,” that “the times they are a-changin’,”that “blowin’ in the wind” world that both had been touched by in those simpler 1962 folk and love times that were in serious danger of being burned up into bitter ashes, and bitter dreams.

Later in the decade when things got dicey with LBJ’s mad escalation of the war in Vietnam, murder in the streets, riots in the streets, assassinations, the spewing forth of every sort of degradation , and Peter Paul’s reluctant drafting in the American Army he lost contact with Joslyn after she went underground with the Weathermen in the late 1960s to try one last chance to create her version of that newer world she had talked about that first date night. That was the last he heard of her.

Short Film Clips- Burt Lancaster’s Sweet Smell Of Success

Short Film Clips

Sweet Smell Of Success, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, 1957

Apparently 1950s Hollywood screenwriters when characterizing Broadway theater critics refused to touch them with anything less than a cattle prod, if that close (perhaps in  the inevitable “real” theater –“bubblegum” movies cultural clash this is where they got their revenge, so be it). At least that has been my recent film review experience after watching – All About Eve and it’s totally cynical critic Addison as he adds fuel to the fire of Anne Bancroft ‘s Eve take-no-prisoners- rise against watch out Bette Davis played superbly by George Saunders and the film under review .

In Sweet Smell Of Success we are confronted with the weasely Broadway critic and man- about- town J. J., played by Burt Lancaster, ably assisted by press flak Sydney Falco played to a groveling tee by Tony Curtis. Now on Broadway and in Hollywood , and we can add Washington politics and cable television mass media into the mix, information is power. And  J.J. has the information to be used like some god for good or evil, and mainly for evil. Although some wit, some long lost wit, once aired the thought that the only bad publicity was no publicity for those reaching for the stars that ain’t necessarily so.  As some minor characters, an  errant younger sister ‘s boyfriend, and as Brother Falco find out.  J.J. is the past master of the blind shot, the groin chop, the innuendo, the false fact that have today become common staple of reporting life.     

The story line here though is a little thin, mainly concerning J.J.’s overweening concern that his very much younger sister does not wind up with some ne’er- do- well. The tricks, manipulations, and downright skullduggery seem all too real to a modern audience who know that fame is fleeting and one better grab it by the neck, fast. The tricks(the old dope, boy, stashed in the pocket routine, for example ) played in this film set in 1950s Broadway, however, seem almost like kid’s stuff compared to the vicious action today. That, my friends, was something of a ‘golden age’ of gentile skullduggery by comparison.

A note on Tony Curtis who on the face of it seems in cinematic history to have been written of something of a ‘pretty’ boy, just another lure for the girl moviegoers. But then you think about the fine performance here against type and in Spartacus and in Some Like It Hot and one, including this reviewer, is compelled to start changing one’s opinion of the depth of Mr. Curtis’s talent.    

 

Video: Presentation by Bradley’s attorney David Coombs

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David Coombs, lawyer for PFC Bradley Manning. Photo by Owen Wiltshire.

Update: Watch recorded footage of the event on CSPAN, or watch the Youtube version, and view photos below. A big thanks to David Coombs, and speakers Michael Ratner, Jesselyn Radack, Kevin Zeese, and Marsha Coleman-Adebayo. The event was a huge success, bringing out media from CSPAN, Reuters, CNN, CBS, 60 Minutes, Fox 5, Arte (Germany), Al-Jazeera, Channel 5 DC, EFE (Spanish news agency), and the DPA (German news agency), among others.
By the Bradley Manning Support Network. December 4, 2012.

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Last night, David Coombs, defense attorney in the WikiLeaks case, US. v. Bradley Manning, gave his first public presentation to an audience of over 100 at All Souls Church in Washington DC. In addition to being defense attorney in one of the most controversial and important ongoing cases today, Coombs was described as being a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserves having done 12 years of active duty, with 15 years experience practicing and teaching law. Additional speakers included Emma Cape and Kevin Zeese of the Bradley Manning Support Network, Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, and Marsha Coleman-Adebayo of the National Whistleblower Center.
CSPAN video:

Mr. Coombs spoke on Bradley’s mistreatment at Quantico, Bradley’s personality and future dreams, Mr. Coombs’ own opinion of the military, and how having supporters worldwide inspired him and gave him hope. Bradley Manning spent the first nine months of his pretrial incarceration in a 6×8 ft cell in solitary conditions described as “degrading and inhuman” by the UN Chief Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez. Regarding Mr. Coombs’ lengthy ongoing motion to have Bradley’s charges dismissed due to ‘unlawful pretrial punishment,’ he explained, “I’m enjoying my opportunity to cross-examine those who had Bradley Manning in those conditions for nine months”
The audience was particularly excited to hear Coombs talk about Bradley as a person. Coombs said that Brad is one of the smartest young men he’d ever met, who does things from the heart, and relayed a conversation he had about Bradley’s future goals: ”And he told me that his dream would be to go to college, go into public service, and perhaps one day, run for public office. And I asked Brad, why would he want to do that? And he said, ‘I want to make a difference. I want to make a difference in this world.’”
While Coombs acknowledged he has been intimidated facing off against a government prosecution with “unlimited resources and personnel,” he relayed that actions by supporters gave him hope. He also acknowledged the political significance of his case, “It is by far the most important military case, but it’s a case that is significant for all of us,” says Coombs. “We live in a country that is built on freedom of speech. We live in a country that is built on government accountability and informed citizens.” He said that Bradley is “excited” his case is finally going forward.
Photos:

Original announcement below:

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December 3, 2012
Washington, DC
6pm doors/refreshments – 7pm event
All Souls Church Unitarian
1500 Harvard Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20009
(2 blocks from the Columbia Hts Metro Station, Yellow/Green lines; also near the S2, S4, H8 and 42 bus lines)
On December 3, 2012, Army PFC Bradley Manning’s civilian defense lawyer David Coombs will make his first ever public appearance to provide an overview of pending defense motions before the court and other facts regarding U.S. v. Manning. Mr. Coombs is expected to focus on the unlawful pretrial punishment that PFC Manning was subjected to for nine months while at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia – the subject of international outrage and a UN investigation. The government’s denial of Bradley Manning’s right to a speedy trial will also be before the military court. Accused military whistle-blower and Nobel Peace Prize nominee PFC Manning has been in prison for over 900 days. His court martial is currently scheduled to begin February 4, 2013.
Thanks to the release of the documents in question, American journalists and citizens have a far greater window into the reality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and secret corporate influence on foreign policy. While no specific harm resulted from the release of this information, PFC Manning faces life in military prison if convicted.
A $5 to $10 suggested donation at the door will be collected to cover event expenses. The event will also feature brief presentations from Bradley Manning Support Network spokespeople Emma Cape and whistle-blower Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, and an appeal from David House in support of Bradley Manning’s defense fund.
Media are welcome to record Mr. Coombs’ presentation. This event will also be live-streamed at bradleymanning.org. We ask that you consider organizing a group viewing of the presentation. Go here to register, if you wish to host a public screening.
This handicap accessible event is hosted by the Bradley Manning Support Network, with the support of:
Center on Conscience & War
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Courage to Resist
DC Metro Science for the People
Dorothy Day Catholic Worker – DC
Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee
International CURE
National CURE
National Lawyers Guild
Peace Action Montgomery
Positive Force
Veterans for Peace – DC
Veterans for Peace – National
Washington Peace Center
Witness Against Torture
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom – DC
World Can’t Wait

Bradley Manning’s brig staff violated Navy rules

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After a two-day break, PFC Bradley Manning’s Article 13 motion continued, with a Marines corrections expert testifying about the various ways in which the Quantico Marine brig violated Navy regulations in the way it maintained Bradley’s confinement. See notes from day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, and day 6 here.
By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. December 5, 2012.

CWO Abel Galaviz. Courtroom sketch by Clark Stoeckley.

The head of Marine corrections testified today at Ft. Meade, MD, that the way Quantico conducted review boards that continually approved keeping PFC Bradley Manning on Prevention of Injury watch was improper and constituted “unnecessary command influence.” He also said that Quantico violated Navy rules by keeping Bradley on Suicide Risk on January 18, 2011, because the brig psychiatrist recommended removal.
Questioned by defense lawyer David Coombs for most of the afternoon, for the defense’s motion to dismiss charges based on unlawful pretrial punishment, Chief Warrant Officer Abel Galaviz testified that for a brig counselor to head the classification board for which he submitted custody recommendations is inherently problematic. The way Classfiation and Assignment (C&A) boards are supposed to run, he said, is that a brig counselor should make a recommendation to the C&A board, and that board then analyzes the custody and classification independently.
At Quantico, for Bradley’s C&A board, brig counselor then-GYSGT Craig Blenis (who testified on Sunday) recommended every single week that Bradley remain on Prevention of Injury (POI) watch, and then he lead the discussion for the very same board each time. Those conversations lasted ten to fifteen minutes, with GYSGT Blenis having already voted and the other two members following suit.
That’s not the only way the C&A boards were improperly influenced before they began.
CWO Galaviz was assigned to investigate whether Quantico’s Commanding Officer CWO James Averhart followed regulations, was within his authority, and made the right decision in keeping Bradley on maximum custody (MAX) and POI. But CWO Galaviz didn’t have all the documentation at hand: he didn’t know about the way the C&A boards were conducted, he didn’t see any of the reports from brig psychiatrists recommending Bradley be removed from POI, and he didn’t know that in early 2011 CWO Averhart had included in weekly reports a directive that Bradley remain on POI until his 706 board – which determines if he’s fit to stand trial, and which wasn’t expected to be completed for months – was done.
CWO Galaviz testified today that this directive from CWO Averhart, which he interpreted as an order, would also influence the board before it started. He called it “prejudging,” and asked, “If you’ve made up your mind, why are we going through the motions?”
He also confirmed that the brig had violated Secretary of the Navy instructions (SECNAV) in keeping Bradley on Suicide Risk on January 18, 2011, when brig psychiatrist Captain William Hocter had recommended reducing his status to POI. SECNAV instructions state that the psychiatrist has the authority to determine if Suicide Risk is appropriate, and since it doesn’t regulate POI, that falls under the brig commander’s jurisdiction. The then-brig commander who made the unlawful decision to keep Bradley on Suicide Risk, CWO Averhart, will testify tomorrow.
Coombs had CWO Galaviz compare Bradley’s conditions to those outlined for ‘disciplinary segregation,’ a definitively punitive isolation. The corrections expert said there were merely a “couple of small differences” between the two – he believed Bradley received more privileges such as library and television opportunities. However, when questioned about Bradley getting only 20 minutes of time outside of cell during his first six months at Quantico instead of the required one hour, CWO Galaviz said that that too wasn’t proper. He didn’t know why a brig might restrict Bradley’s sunshine time, speculating that the brig may have been understaffed, but said, “I don’t know what the CO was thinking.”
CWO Galaviz testified in the second half of today’s hearing – before lunch, Master Sergeant Brian Papakie, Quantico’s brig supervisor during Bradley’s time there, took the stand. MSG Papakie was responsible for ensuring the brig ran smoothly on a daily basis, and was in charge of Quantico’s programs group, overseeing counseling and coordinated visits from chaplains, mental health professionals, medical doctors, and the like.
MSG Papakie’s testimony differed from another Quantico guard’s remarks about the incident on January 18, 2011, in which Bradley said unusually rough guards intimidated him in the recreation center until he had an anxiety attack, which led to CWO Averhart placing him on Suicide Risk. MSG Papakie said that as soon as he heard about the incident, he ordered the guards who had escorted Bradley to the rec. center to be relieved to fill out incident reports.
However, the officials involved say otherwise. Sergeants Cline and Tankersly testified that GYSGT William Fuller relieved them, while GYSGT Fuller said they had been relieved by the time he arrived. SGT Cline said he was “puzzled” as to why he was relieved.
CWO Averhart, who should testify all day tomorrow, will reveal more about what happened later that day, and why the Commanding Officer kept Bradley on Suicide Risk against the doctor’s orders.

Happy Birthday Bradley! Write him a letter of support!

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Let Bradley know you care! Write him a letter of support for his 25th birthday – his third behind bars.
By the Bradley Manning Support Network. December 6th, 2012.

Bradley Manning will turn 25 on December 17th. It will be his third birthday in prison without trial. His court martial is scheduled for March, 2013.

Military whistle-blower Bradley Manning will turn 25 on December 17th. It will be his third birthday in prison, and by the time his court martial begins it will have been almost three years in prison: one year of which in the Quantico marine brig, where he was held in solitary confinement against the recommendations of mental health professionals. His trial is scheduled to start next March, and he needs our support. Please take a few minutes to mail Bradley a birthday message, and to send a gift to his Defense Fund.
Bradley can receive mail at the following address:
Commander, HHC USAG
Attn: PFC Bradley Manning
239 Sheridan Ave, Bldg 417
JBM-HH, VA 22211
Visit this link to read about mail restrictions.
Bradley’s lawyer David Coombs recent spoke publicly for the first time. He said that Bradley is one of the smartest, most caring young men he’s ever met, and he also talked about Bradley’s future dreams and goals:

“And [Bradley] told me that his dream would be to go to college, go into public service, and perhaps one day, run for public office. And I asked Brad, why would he want to do that? And he said, ‘I want to make a difference. I want to make a difference in this world.’”

Please take some time before December 17 to show Bradley that you are thinking of him, and appreciate his efforts to hold US government officials accountable by informing the American public. In addition to mailing him a birthday message and donating to his Defense Fund, you can also take a photo holding a “Happy birthday Bradley Manning!” sign and e-mail it to owen@bradleymanning.org . We will compile photos to share on our website, and send them to Bradley as well.

Bradley Manning punished for charges before trial

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Brig commander CWO James Averhart testified all day in Ft. Meade, MD, about his role in keeping Bradley Manning on senselessly abusive conditions. He is the first to stress that Bradley’s charges and their national security implications put him at risk in Quantico and therefore warranted restrictive treatment. Tomorrow, his replacement, CWO Barnes, will testify.
By Nathan Fuller, Bradley Manning Support Network. December 6, 2012.

CWO James Averhart, Quantico brig commander. Sketch by Clark Stoeckley.

James Averhart, the officer who made the final call to keep PFC Bradley Manning isolated on maximum, restricted custody in a 6×8 cell for nine months, testified today in Fort Meade, MD, to explain his approval of Manning’s treatment. He said that the severity of Bradley’s charges, which carry extremely long sentences, was a major factor in his decision to keep the young Army private on these conditions.
A Chief Warrant Officer and Quantico’s Commanding Officer until January 2011, CWO Averhart also testified about specific incidents in which he kept Bradley on Suicide Risk status for several days against Navy regulations, more details of Bradley’s confinement, and the process by which he approved keeping Bradley on Prevention of Injury (POI) each week.
CWO Averhart made the final decision on Bradley’s custody and classification each week after receiving the Custody and Assignment (C&A) board recommendations, reviewing psychiatrists’ advice, and speaking with the brig counselor about his impressions. But his testimony reveals that Bradley’s confinement status might as well have been preordained before his arrival at Quantico: CWO Averhart said Bradley’s charges, which at the time included the Article 134 charge risking harm to United States’ national security, carried such long sentences that Bradley was at risk to harm himself or be harmed by others.
He said that because the other detainees in the brig – of which there were only about 6-10 at any given time – were “very patriotic” and “knew why PFC Manning was there,” so he was concerned that something might happen to the WikiLeaks whistleblower if allowed to comingle with the general population. He said this informed his decision to keep Bradley on POI, as did Bradley’s suicidal thoughts in Kuwait. To test this claim, defense lawyer David Coombs asked – all other factors being equal – if Bradley had faced charges that would bring a court-martial and only a brief sentence, if he would receive the same treatment, and CWO Averhart said he wouldn’t put him on POI.
This is a shift from the testimony for most of the last week, in which Quantico guards, staff, and especially Bradley’s counselor, then-GYSGT Blenis, emphasized Bradley’s allegedly poor communication with his jailers as their main cause for concern. CWO Averhart did say that he heard from others that Bradley was incommunicative, but when Bradley launched an Article 138 complaint (a generic complaint alleging abuse by a superior officer), protesting his unjustified POI status, CWO Averhart’s response, which was drafted by GYSGT Blenis, didn’t even mention Bradley’s communication issues.
CWO Averhart’s testimony conflicted with CWO Abel Galaviz’s testimony as well. Navy corrections regulations state, “When prisoners are no longer considered to be suicide risks by a medical officer, they shall be returned to appropriate quarters.” Yesterday, and in his investigative findings last year, CWO Galaviz said that CWO Averhart violated this regulation twice, by keeping Bradley in Suicide Risk conditions August 6-11 and January 18-20 against psychiatrist Cpt. William Hocter’s recommendation that Bradley’s status be reduced to POI. Today, CWO Averhart defended his authority, saying the word “shall” in that regulation didn’t mean, “immediately shall,” and therefore as brig commander he was justified in removing Bradley on his own accord.
CWO Averhart gave new details about Bradley’s cell conditions, revealing that the cells on either side of Bradley’s were occupied by equipment, so he never had a detainee next to him. He also said that the C&A board chose Bradley’s cell upon his arrival.
He seemed to be confused about Bradley’s restrictions during recreation: when told that unlike other maximum security detainees, Bradley was forced to keep his leg restraints on when he went outside for exercise, CWO Averhart said, “I don’t remember that.” But Coombs told him that Quantico Staff Sergeant Brian Papakie testified that they remained on, and he said, “They should’ve been taken off.”
The portion that was consistent with this hearing’s testimony was CWO Averhart’s misgivings about Cpt. Hocter’s mental health recommendations. He said, as nearly all other Quantico officials have, that Cpt. Hocter was “in and out” and didn’t spend enough time with Bradley or give a complete evaluation to the C&A boards. CWO Averhart never told Cpt. Hocter he didn’t trust him, or that he thought he should spend more time at the brig.
Coombs replied, “You said, regarding Manning’s status, there was a lack of communication – do you also see you had a lack of communication with Cpt. Hocter?”
“I could see that, sir,” he said.
We’ll delve into more inconsistencies with CWO Averhart’s and other Quantico officials’ testimonies from this hearing as the Article 13 session nears a close. Tomorrow, CWO Barnes, who replaced CWO Averhart as brig commander on January 24, 2011, and who ordered Bradley strip naked in early March 2011, will testify tomorrow. The hearing will continue next week, from December 5-7.

Join us at the Fort Meade hearings to stand with Brad

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Alleged WikiLeaks whistle-blower PFC Bradley Manning is back in court soon for his next pre-trial motion hearing. We encourage everyone to attend! The next scheduled court dates are:

• December 5 – 7: continuation of defense’s Article 13 motion to dismiss based on unlawful pretrial punishment
• December 10-12: continuation of defense’s Article 13 motion to dismiss based on unlawful pretrial punishment
• January 16–17
• February 5-8
• Trial to start either March 6 or March 18, depending on pending motions and hearings

On hearing days, we usually hold a vigil from 8:00 am to 9:30 am in front of the Fort Meade Main Gate at Reece Road and US 175 (Google map). Afterwards, we enter Fort Meade (via the Visitor Control Center), and go to the courtroom.
It has been over two years since his arrest, and the government is continuing to delay and extend the trial timeline. Help us show Bradley we care by filling the court room!
To enter Fort Meade, bring a government issued ID, such as a state issued drivers license or passport. Non-US passports are accepted. Be prepared to remove any shirts or buttons that show support for Bradley Manning while on base.
If you are driving onto Fort Meade, make sure to:

• Have your up-to-date vehicle registration
• Have your up-to-date vehicle insurance (printed copy–not a electronic version on your mobile phone)
• Obey posted speed limits (they are strictly enforced by military police–especially for “special visitors”)
• Be prepared to cover “political” bumper stickers on your vehicle with tape

Unlike most trials, the government is refusing to release any official transcripts of the trials. It is up to the public to attend, and comment on, what happens inside the otherwise secretive court room. Thank you for your support and please join us at Fort Meade!
Getting there:

From Washington, D.C.

• Take MD-295 NORTH towards BALTIMORE to US 175 EAST. Take 175 EAST until you come to the Reece Road intersection (there is a traffic light). Turn right at the traffic light onto Reece road, and proceed to the Visitor Control Center to your right.

From Baltimore, M.D.

• Take MD-295 SOUTH towards WASHINGTON DC to US 175 EAST. Take 175 EAST until you come to the Reece Road intersection (there is a traffic light). Turn right at the traffic light onto Reece road, and proceed to the Visitor Control Center to your right.

Visitor Control Center

• Fort Meade is a ‘closed’ post, all visitors should go to the Visitor Control Center at the Reece Road gate for access information. This information may change from day to day. There is a parking lot outside of the Visitor Control Center.

Courtroom

• After entering Fort Meade at Reece Road, drive or walk to the Magistrate Court, 4432 Llewellyn Avenue, Fort Meade, MD. It is 2 miles from the Visitor Control Center. There is usually parking available near the courtroom. There are no electronic devices allowed through the security check to enter the courtroom–you must leave your mobile phone in your vehicle (or someone’s vehicle).

If you have any questions about attending the court room proceed