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Yes! The focus should be on winning!
Thom - just saw the pic of you trying your brother's .40 cal.
Not sure what state that's in, but here in NY you'd be arrested and your brother would lose his pistol permit......thanks to your brethren....Comrade Cuomo
Just wondering how you feel about his SAFE Act.......
Thom wrote- we also need to say "sorry" for Bush and Cheney exposing American troops in Iraq to chemical weapons, and then lying about it and not giving them the proper medical treatment.
So, were there or where there not chemical weapons in Iraq? You say on a regular basis that there were no chemical weapons, now you say that troops weren't given proper medical treatment......huh?
I understand that your average dunderhead- demonocrat wouldn't catch your double-speak, they just generally agree with whatever your type say....."Yeah, I'm with you...rah, rah....what did you say?"
Hey ChicagoMatt, I posted a reply to your comment of several days ago on that blog topic page. Gotta go now, might not be around for several more days.
The prevailing Republican attitude toward veterans was expressed well by Henry Kissinger when he said, "Soldiers are stupid animals to be used."
Yesterday a caller wanted to blame the veterans for U.S. foreign policy or consider them complicit. That is a very facile assertion. I'd recommend he become familiar with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Iraq Veteran's Against the War. Many vets entered the military believing they were doing the world good in their youth and impressionability - or for whatever reason - and found out later how wrong they were. Hindsight is 20/20 and it's easy to quarterback on Monday morning. Honor the warrior not the war.
ChicagoMatt, you're not making any sense, maybe you can be happy not being able to make ends meet with a 7.25 or 8.25 wage but I can assure you, the very vast majority of others in that predicament could not and are not. You can trust us on that.
These problems, Matt, are in fact systemic and your denial of that is a major fallacy in your logic. Have you gone into a big box store lately, for example? In addition to customer service, you can have your questions about science, history and philosophy answered as the floor staff is so educated and mature. Don't know how they're going to pay their student debt working there.
There's a good book I saw reviewed in In These Times yesterday. It's called Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America (the Brittish title is Hand to Mouth: The Truth About Being Poor in a Wealthy World.) It's by an educated woman who, as is increasingly common, had to live in poverty for an extended period and dispels the myths that better off people like to keep to help them dismiss concern for the poor. It's a little like the sociological "participant observation" Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Having lived in poverty for an extended period myself as a poor laborer, I can tell you both of those books are quite accurate in their description. If you were, for whatever reason, to ever find yourself in poverty I can assure you you would find yourself doing many of the things you so dislike that are common to the poor and be sorely tempted to engage in many of the other behaviours. Don't get what I call a "Tarzan Complex" imagining that you would necessarily be different from "those people".
Again, if you like your boss great but sociological Conflict Theory - sociological theory that asserts that, in a society like ours, people's purposes and vested interests are fundamentally in conflict with those of others - would insist that relationships like those between, say, a merchant and buyer, a landlord and tennant or an employer and employee usually result in a fair amount of emnity between the two parties. Each is trying to get the most in return for the least and it seems to each that the other is trying to take undue advantage while they themselves are merely behaving in the most logical, cost effective way (although it's not uncommon for one of the parties, usually the more powerful, i.e., the merchant, landlord or employer, to dispense with any ethical considerations and to knowingly and willfully, in fact, try to take undue advantage of the other simply because "they can", i.e., they see an opportunity to do so and seize upon it. .
The very reason the Rethugs lost here in California is because they can't get away with rigging the voting system. I don't believe that Mitch McConnell and those other two clowns in Wisconsin and Florida really won. They only win by cheating, keeping people from voting and filling up American hayseeds with plenty of lying propaganda. Somehow, someway, we need to declare war against these criminals.
sandlewould ~ We don't have electronic voting machines here in California. We did away with that nonsense. Now we only have paper ballots. No BIG mistakes here. You should all stand up and demand paper ballots--if you can. Of course if an election was flipped in California, it would be painfully obvious. Probably why the right wing isn't that interested in rigging the election here. Too much work. I wish you all the best of luck out there. I know you are fighting an uphill battle. Keep up the good work and never give up!
The voting “irregularities”, the gerrymandering, they're all part of a bigger picture. Congressional members legalized insider trading for themselves. Corporations want control of other countries through these new trade agreements so they can pillage and loot resources and labor, just like they did with the last ones, and like what they're doing at home. Deregulation of the markets has resulted in manipulated like there's no tomorrow. You don't think the tech bubble, the housing bubble, and the current bond bubble are accidents, do you? They're wealth extraction schemes. There's no “free market” anymore. That's why the people at the top are “fighting” each other so hard. They're whipping up the media and the electorate. They're keeping our senses on the nonsense while they keep their eyes on the prize. It's all theater, and McConnell, Boehner, Obama, Kerry, Hillary, the Reps and Dems in Congress, they're all in on it. They're extracting wealth, just like the banksters, CEOs, and all wealthy investors. Our pols want the top jobs in corporations where they can pillage the whole world at will. That's why the Democrats in Congress aren't screaming mad. They're enabling the laws to be rewritten to enrich the few at the expense of the many. They have to control and manipulate the voting system to make sure the many aren't able to vote for what we want. It's a giant, systematic scam, and all the wealthy and the pols are in on it. Time to wake up and see the REAL Big Picture. You've got a cushy job there and you've made your nut, but you've got a big audience and you have to ignite the fire in your belly and help start the New Democratic Revolution that will eject these TRAITORS into space, never to be heard from again.
I'd go with Constitutional Corporatocracy, just because of the definition of monarchy: the rule of one.
How about if we stop creating war veterans? The US has remained engaged in wars more often than not, usually by choice, for a full century already, going back to WWl. There is no money left to maintain the US. The longer we ignore our poverty crisis, the wider and deeper it grows, destroying the nation from within.
We have the politics and policies chosen, every step of the way, by the middle class. Not much we can say say about that. How odd that you would be harrassed when you simply fo to vote. How do people even know who you're voting for? In my experience, people just get into line, waiting their turn, and any chatting is about anything but politics. My own family didn't reach the US until the early 20th Century; does that make us less American than your family?
My only and most precious son (brother, cousin, nephew) is an Iraq War vet--an Ohio National Guard citizen soldier (where Georgie Bush, himself, hid from service in Vietnam)--soldiers meant to serve on United States soil--soldiers who did not receive but little COMBAT training just before they were shipped out--who spent an entire year in Iraq in 2005 doing the hurt-locker thing and guarding the Abu Grieb prison facility (not the prisoners); many of his buddies, who stayed in, were sent back many more times.
My son came back with PTSD. Very little has been done to assist him with this problem. It seems to help him when he gets together with other vets--he finds understanding about the "constant alertness" problem from his uncle, a Korean War vet. We never ask him about that time--he tells us when he's ready. I worry about him daily. He's seen things you never expect your children to see. Their brains have been changed for good, studies show. We have to do better preparing them to come back to safety and family and community.
History will show the farce of the Iraq invasion and the stupidity of George Worst-Ever Bush and his company of draft dodgers/chickenhawks and send-others-to-do-their-dirty-work war profiteers. They should be so ashamed...and so very grateful, but apparently, they are not.
Just curious -- When you went in for recertification (for HUD), why did you take along a 50 yr old photo? What point were you trying to make? Presumably, when you applied for subsidized housing, you provided information about your military service, etc.
Hard to know how to respond to this. Why would gay men sabotage your work? The idea of a group of gay soldiers harrassing you is just puzzling. By being a "white bride," you mean a virgin? The complaint about people watching too much TV is pretty outdated. It is no surprise that people don't want to hear stories about human atrocities, whether in war or civilian life. Focusing on the horrors that fellow citizens commit can make it impossible to function. If you think people are obsessed with physical perfection, you might be confusing advertising with real life. As for inviting a few vets home for dinner -- how many people feel safe with inviting strangers into their homes? As for "upscale housewives"... are there any? With all of this said, the same complaints have been made by veterans for at least the past 50 years. Who doesn't know this? Enlisting is simply a gamble, a shot at a better life via the education and skills training available to those who enlist. Everyone who enlists knows that if they don't succeed, they will become the classic homeless Vietnam vet -- chewed up and spit out. We have no tolerance of those who don't succeed.
Yes, JohnBest: as another Ohioan talking about voting "irregularities" in Ohio. Do you remember when Diebold's CEO on mike said he would guarentee a victory for Bush? And the independent group that came in later and found--I cannot remember the number now--of violations. But nothing has ever been done. We bitch about the elections in other countries, but ours stink, too.
As a Democrat, I am usually harrassed at the polls in my largely rethuglican county; I keep going and keep voting--it's my right--it's the right all my family fought for in the American Revolution and later the Women's movement and later the Civil Rights Movement. And the restrictions on who may vote is just crazy.
America stinks with the poop of the wealthy and powerful--and without US they would have NO WEALTH and POWER.
For those who are able, enlisting is at least a chance of gaining the way out of poverty. When they return to civilian life, not all succeed. We chew them up and spit them out. America is intolerant of the poor. Once you're poor, all of your past contributions, whether to the military or to life, become irrelevant."No excuses," as Bill Clinton said.
I was touched by a caller on today's show, an Iraq war veteran who passionately shared about being actitively involved in the anti-war movement. Twenty-two veterans commit sluice each day. Thom highlighted the comment noting one suicide each hour.
Today was the 100th anniversary of the breakout of WWI with the introduction of mechanized armies, aerial warfare on civilian populations; submarine attacks on passenger ships; and unthinkable chemical and biological warfare. "The war to end all wars," at least that is what was said. Two million soldiers dead.
A mere twety years later, World War II with 60 million dead as mankind ventured into the realm of psychotic, mass murder. Progress lead to the nuclear age, a "cold war" and pushing the hairpin trigger towards mutually assured destruction.
Perhaps WWII was a fight against "evil" proliferated by the Nazis and the Japanese in Manchuria. Perhaps the evil forces are but an extension of similar corporate, socio-political forces often disguised behind religious doctrines.
I find myself often saying, "Thank you for serving," though my heart wants to apologize for not providing adequate tools, amble number of troops, and insulting their commitment knowing Halliburton pays 4 times as well delivering supplies made in China. Mostly, I want to apologize the American dream for which they defended has largely evaporated over the last ten to twenty years.
Rich
Reply to #21: Marc, I agree with what you are saying. But you left out one important factor in our immigration problem: our ridiculous "trade" policies. NAFTA is to blame for the surge in Mexican immigration, because it was NAFTA that made it impossible for them to earn a living in their own country. I find that point conspicuously lacking in 99.9% of the comments & discussions about immigration.
People tend to not leave their country of origin unless they've got a damn good reason. Especially if they're poor. - AIW
Great article Thom and well stated.
I am a Gulf War vet and I don't like it when people say, "thank you". I don't feel I did anything that I should be thanked for. I volunteered and let's just say, I don't believe my participation in the Gulf War helped anyone except maybe as moral support to my peers. I do appreciate the sentiment when someone says, "thank you" but, I much prefer "I'm sorry" or even "I recognize your service". "Thank you" kind of bothers me personally.
I am still getting on Dish but more interruptionss on all chanels.
Thank you very much for posting this!
Reply to #2” Mark, I never suggested blue collar workers shouldn’t have their own movement and speak for themselves. I happen to believe intellectuals have a place in progressive politics. How about some examples of the chauvinism you keep referring to?
However I agree that blue collar workers and intellectuals would have a lot to learn from each other.
On another topic, I don’t know why you or anyone bothers with OU812. But it sure is amusing to read your responses to her inane anti-union BS. I’m sure the outcome of this election has her feeling pretty damn smug. - AIW
Fanchon88 - I was a kid during WWII in San Francisco. My parents always invited active duty soldiers and sailors to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. They were very appreciative being far away from home and facing a scary future in combat.
Happy Veterans Day everyone. When I was young it was still called Armistice Day.
Veteran seems to be almost a dirty word, rather like "resident" in my senior HUD housing. Yesterday I had "recertification" at my HUD housing. Today I had to go back to the Manager's office to finish an application for help with utility bills. I took along a picture to show. I felt like the bitch didn't really get it: FIFTY YEARS AGO yesterday I was commissioned in the USAF! And my picture shows a 22-year-old, 126-pound blond dolly in mess dress and high heels. I had played the piano at our formal dining-in and John Glenn, our guest speaker, had to sit still and listen! The officer trainee MC was drinking for courage and made an improper comment about me! As a result, he served his time as an enlisted man. I was harassed to tears by gay NCO's and eventually I blasted open an international vice ring in Europe. This I did in self-defense because the gay men were sabotaging my work. Both military and civilian people from several countries were involved in drugs, prostitution, etc. etc. So I ended up doing a lot more than sign orders. Across my desk came not only SECRET and TOP SECRET documents, but many marked OBSCENE. I had needed to get away from hometown family micro-management. I gave some good years to my country. At age 41 I finally got to be a white bride, the third wife of a Vietnam vet. Our pillow talk included renditions of what the little "fuck you" lizard said, descriptions of horrific torture, men cut down in the jungle having suffered unspeakably. I was the first to listen to these stories. How many stupid women would have said, "Eu -- that's negative! Don't tell me!" I loved and I listened. He got better. We had some fun. . . . We were all young and strong and gorgeous once. We gave that away. Now too many people are watching the boob tube and all concerned with physical perfection and their own crappy little lives. How I wish ordinary citizens could better support their town Vet Centers, even invite a couple of homeless vets home for Thanksgiving. I can hear these damned upscale housewives saying, "Eu, they might have lice!" I realize old homeless vets are hard to help. But, dammit, God is watching! Okay, enuf! Happy Veteran's Day, everybody!