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I'm sorry but all these "wars" in the middle east are only important to America because of their oil. Rather than intervene constantly, couldn't we just let them do what they want like we have done in all those non-oil countries in Africa and let them fight it out? Then we can make our bargin with whatever new devil ends up running their country. All these wars in the middle east are one faction of Islam against the other. These countries are not civilized enough to appreciate democracy. They just want their dictator that's the same sect as theirs. We can do humanitary help, but using the military in those countries doesn't seem to be good for anyone.
Although I believe Democrats and Republicans are factions of the same party, both controlled by the one percent;
is it a viable option for us to vote for a third party?
ideally voting for third parties could change the Democratic Party from Within, in the sense of the quote:
if the people lead the leaders will follow.
another big part of me feels that big money only cares about this election cycle, because it's a winner take all system of government. So when we vote for a third party, we literally do help Republicans take all. I do not believe this will wake up the voters, after watching and thinking of Voters would wake up when Reagan was president.. hell the voters didn't even wake up when Bush 2 was president.
and unfortunately when the voters vote for change we end up with more of the same with a Blue Dog Democrat, governing not much different than Republicans. This is because big money is in control of the environment.
And I am open to practical suggestions how we can change this. with politics a wash and unbelievable amount Of corporate money, and other 1 percent powers controlling the media, so they can fool the voters with propaganda. It seems We have no power that can go against big money's power, to fool enough people to sway elections in their favor. Possibly the only solution is revolution, and our government is already gearing up military style, such as we have seen during the Occupy protest.
America is solidly a fascist dictatorship today, and big money is the dictator.
However horrible it is that waring factions use chemical weapons, dead is dead and this is not a football match. If we bomb the established leaders in Syria, we will kill, with our authentic non-chemical bombs, numbers of children and women and citizens and they will be dead as also only dead can be dead.
We have great opportunities in the world to come up with ways to solve problems without having to make dead as a resolution.
We have no business being in Syria nor had we business to be in any mid-east country. If we cannot forward fund these war games the way Republicons want to forward fund the post office, we cannot afford the activity. If we cannot afford to help our own impoverished people in our own country, nor have a Medicare-like public funded health care system for all our citizens, nor fully fund our Social Security without WEP & GPO, nor offer free college educations for those who have the talent and interest, nor numerous other activities that we say we can't afford due to the heavy costs of our war games, then we are one lost nation, one lost society.
We cannot afford aide and armaments to other countries when we cannot afford to help our own citizens. Good will starts with good will at home, in our own families, in our own hearts and minds, in our own actions.
Greed, Anger, Delusion currently inspires our actions and it only takes one of these to be heading down the wrong path. We are guilty of all 3.
May we wake up, may we truly wake up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Palindromedary ~ You are spot on correct! Oh, how we do love to cherry pick the innocent civilians whose life's matter and those who don't. And oh, how short our memory is. Hitler would be turning green with envy at this point.
I might support invading Syria, but for only one reason. The more "domino's" this corrupt and evil fascist government of ours knocks over in the middle east the more of a threat they become to China and Russia. At this rate it is only a matter of time for these two super powers to get fed up, join the forces of the oppressed, and put a final end to this nightmare. The people in this country could never hope to overthrown anything. They might succeed politically; but, even then the odds are stacked against them. Even thought possible it would take more time than it will take to invade the middle east. There is a faster way.
The only real way to end this campaign of evil quickly is through outside superpower intervention. You know, the same way the Syrian rebels are about to do it. Remember the propaganda dished out in Russia and China don't need to make stuff up to rally their peoples against the United States. Like FDR did in the 1930's. All they have to do is tell the people the truth and share the stories of the US victims that is conveniently blocked from the American media. They will not have to be told what they need to do they will know instinctively.
"All we can do is watch.... and hope..."????
No, we need to object!
The inspectors are still on the ground. We don't have the support of key countries (eg: Russia). Does this sound familiar?
I was shocked, but sadly not surprised to hear an NPR interviewer today ask a former weapons analyst if he could say with certainty that the Syrian government wasn't the party that used the chemical weapons. Remarkably poor question in America where we supposedly demand proof beyond a shadow of a doubt prior to convicting someone. The question should be, "How can Obama be sure that Assad ordered the attack and that it was made by the government?" And, if he is sure, "Why isn't he giving us the proof?" Shouldn't the standard be at least as tough as our own standard for criminal convictions, before we start bombing some other country and killing more people?
Iraq 2 Redux. There is no legal, moral, practical, or intelligent basis for attacking Syria. Two legal wrongs don't make it right. Two immoral actions don't make it moral. Come up with a much better plan.
The Twain Report
All The News That Mark Twain Says He Would Report If He Was Alive Today
8-28-2013
In keeping with the tradition started by George Bush when a bunch of Arabian citizens attacked the World Trade Towers on 9-11 and Bush responded by invading Iraq, the Twain Report suggests that because Syria's Assad (or the Syrian rebel forces, or the CIA, or someone else) has apparently used chemical weapons against the Syrian people, we should invade Turkmenistan.
But why Turkmenistan, you ask, when it was Syria's Assad who apparently used the chemical weapons? And of course the answer is, what's the matter with you, I thought you were a patriot.
And let's not cherry-pick here. If Obama is going to continue in his efforts to be a more erudite but otherwise perfect carbon copy of George Bush, Obama will now go to Syria and have photos taken of him walking around holding hands with Assad and kissing him on the lips. THEN we will invade Turkmenistan.
The Twain Report can hardly wait for our patriotic war against all those freedom haters in Turkmenistan to start. Hopefully this will be a fair and balanced war, with hundreds of thousands of innocents being killed. And let's not forget the equally important total destruction of Turkmenistan's hospitals, schools, water supplies, and roads, because that's how you convince freedom-haters to become freedom-lovers. And the pallet-loads of billions of dollars in cash being "misplaced" in Turkmenistan.
Ever the patriotic congressman, John McCain has followed the leadup to our latest patriotic war with one hand on his computer mouse, the other hand in his pants, and a glazed look in his eyes, chanting, "Bomb-bomb-bomb, Bomb Turk-menistan!"
The Twain Report just loves the smell of jingoism in the morning- it clogs the sinuses and enhances selective memory. And it guarantees that Obama will go down in history as our first warmongering black president.
A famous Ivy League alumni who asked to remain anonymous said, "Look, it's fine for Bush to behave that way, it's expected of people who cheated their way through Yale. But Obama pretended that he knew better."
Obviously Obama does not know better. But at least now we know what he will do when he leaves the White House. He will do naked paintings of himself in the bathtub.
And the biggest question on everyone's mind is whether Michelle will go along with Barack's plan to change her name to Laura.
I've already gotten several e-mails asking me to sign petitions against attacking Syria, but none of the petitions has been to encourage Congress to take their power to declare war back from the President.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
"It's a slam dunk, Mr. President."
It doesn't make sense to me why Assad would launch such an attack just after a group of inspectors enters Syria to research chemical weapons use. Why would he risk outside intervention - especially from the US? There are plenty of people who want to get involved in Syria, and by extension, Iran. Like a lot of Republicans. How do we know this wasn't done by the CIA to pull us in? I'm suspicious.
If there is anything the American government can do to make it even more hated by the rest of the world, by God, that's exactly what they'll do.
Sorry, Syria, but it looks like you're the next one to get stepped on by Americans stomping their way to global domination.
Beam me up, Scotty...this planet sucks!
Yikes, before I go, I have to express dismay at seeing a Victoria's Secret ad here. From what I've read, they use prison labor, paying Americans pennies an hour. I wouldn't take home anything from them, if they were giving it away.
The two most useful things I've read so far about the Syrian situation are these: www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NI28Ak03.html and www.opednews.com/articles/Syria-Another-Western-War-by-Paul-Craig-Robert....
What I've been yowling for a couple of days at my supposed representatives in Washington is this:
How is it just to find endless money for military aggression and defense profiteers, but none to create jobs for suffering Americans and save our collapsing cities?
How is it just to call meddling in the Syrian conflict a "moral" issue, while the real moral issues facing our country are violated -- by actions like taking food and early education away from children, ripping off college students, having a minimum wage lower than it was in 1968, swiping pensions from private and public employees, attacking Social Security and subsidizing devious banksters who practice debt extortion all over the world to rob communities and nations of their revenues and treasures?
Thank you, Thom, for your marvelous programs. You and Bernie are among my favorite people.
I do not understand why Congress is not being called back into session. Impeachment's "high crimes and misdemeanors covers allegations of misconduct peculiar to officials, such as perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty...."
So how are Boehner and Reid not guilty of a dereliction of duty for not getting Congress involved with this exceptionally dangerous decision to attack another country?
Only Congress can tell Obama that his red line was a dumb line, and pull us back from the brink of another conflict, very possibly with Russia and Iran. See:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/26/320593/us-bankster-have-syria-in-sights/
Obviously the real issue here has two parts. One is (again and as always), the fact the Democrats and the Republicans are but factions within the One Party of Two Names that rules the United States for the capitalist aristocracy known as the One Percent. The other is the extent to which the entire Ruling Class -- the One Percent and the politicians, the bureaucrats, the military officers, the police commanders, the executives and the professionals who obediently serve these Wall Street aristocrats -- is quietly but fanatically committed to the global imposition of Abrahamic theocracy, whether Judaic, Christian or Islamic.
This is why, for example, the so-called "liberation of Iraq" was in fact engineered to enable Islamic fundamentalists to take over the one genuinely secular state in the entire Islamic world. It is also why Hillary Clinton clandestinely collaborates with Sam Brownback to abolish women's sexual freedom in the United States. (For documentation of Hillary's commitment to theocracy and how she functions as a traitor both to her gender and to the principles of religious freedom, see pgs. 272-276 of The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power [Jeff Sharlet; Harper: 2008])
In either case, the objective is to employ the core savagery of Abrahamic religion -- particularly its hatred of women and Nature and its endorsement of divine-right rule (whether by the kings of yesterday or the executives of today and tomorrow) -- to brain-police and opiate all the rest of us as we are herded into capitalism's slave pens. The intent, as always under capitalism, is the total enslavement of all of us who are not part of the Ruling Class. The goal is an electronically enforced, theologically sustained tyranny intended to guarantee the One Percent's wealth and power literally forever.
The USian model -- I refuse to call it "American" because, at least at present, there are still many nations in the Americas that remain outside the USian imperial boundaries -- is of course the post-Civil-War South, which has been a de facto theocracy since the late 1860s. The Ku Klux Klan is colloquially known as "the Saturday Night Men's Bible Study Class" because of how, in addition to its activities as a racist death squad, it traditionally functions as the Christian equivalent of the breathtakingly sadistic Islamic Morality Police.
In this environment, where the Big Lie of "American democracy" is so vividly revealed, it is absurd to imagine the One Percent has allowed the appointment of any higher-court judges who would dare thwart capitalist governance -- that is, absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation for all the rest of us -- by ruling in opposition to the theocratic onslaught. Of course I support the Freedom From Religion Foundation's lawsuit, but I have no doubt it will fail.
No Palin, We (Canadians) are there to help the Afgan's make a living by supplying them with irrigation systems, schools etc to help them survive without bad guy money. Crazy but young girls can go to school there now, Thats the real threat to them, It is changing there way of life. . America is in the middle East to stabilize the area to keep the oil prices low so industrial nations can carry on with our wonderful perfect life we have. Coming from a oil producing area I would benifit a lot if the whole Middle East was in turmoil, oil prices would sky rocket and I would make out just fine. China is laughing there head off that the US for spending all that borrowed money from China to keep oil prices down for the Chinese.
I like you though do not want any one there. Let them work it out themselves. I am tired of watching my brave soldiers come down the "highway of heros" with our flag over thier coffins. Unlike America who hides all the bodies coming home with media blackouts we proudly honor our hero's. In my mind there is no greater hero than one who leaves the greatest place on earth to go to the worst place on earth to help people they don't even know. Remember we don't just go to oil producing countries. We where the only country left in Rwanada when the shit hit the fan and stayed to the bitter end. Well after the rest of the world bailed.
The dream has not been realized, especially when a liberal like Dr. Mike Newcomb so freely uses the N-word on his show and when sitting in for Thom Hartmann. I fill a sting in my chest everytime I hear this loaded word and must turn off the show because it upsets me so. I can't be the only one.
Ok, now I'll give someone else a chance...I gotta go...more important things to do for now...have fun!
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
note: there are a lot of these unclassified documents at this web site...I have not been able to read them all...but some look pretty condemning of the USG.
The damn crapitolists don't care who gets murdered by their weapons just as long as they get their money and control over whatever or whomever is left.
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/gws.htm
This was written in 1991 and updated in 1997 by the gulfwarvets website. Since, we know a lot more about how criminal our government has been...thanks, in part to people like Assange, Manning, Snowden and all the other whistle blowers.
Thom - I have to tell you that I think it is a mistake to associate yourself with The Daily Caller. Those people over there are vicious!
Well, I'm not the one who has, apparently, had way too many pizzas. You, perhaps, should have worn a shirt. And as for "whining"..one could say that many of us...including Thom Hartmann has done nothing but "whine"...if that's what you want to call it. You remind me of the Republicans who had a popular saying when Democrats expressed their discontent with the Bush administration..."Just get over it!" Remember that? Well, did you just get over it? Oh, that's right, you was a Republican back then, huh? I sure didn't get over it and I won't until the system changes back to where we all have more equal rights and a more just slice of the pie and a government that stops murdering civilians in unjust wars and stops lying so much to us all. Your Liar and Thief President that you love so much is part of the problem. As far as I am concerned he joined the forces of the dark side (no pun intended). And you can try to belittle me by saying that I "whine" too much. Whatever! I don't care a whit! You think that some of the non-sense you have typed is understandable? I don't think so! It's like...what the hell did he just try to say? Duh! Sorry...just sayin'!
Dear Palindromedary,
My first wish would be to be granted a million wishes.
One of those million wishes would be to know everything about every nation's major governing body's true agenda, as you do.
Then I would wish for the truth about what every major national leader on our planet is Really thinking about!
I would like to thank you in advance for granting me this wish since someone obviously granted this wish for you; I can only hope to gain such divine powers from your likeness.
And if you refuse me such amenities, then might I at least be fortunate enough to ask you what it's like to view our entire planet Earth from the perspective of an orbiting and all-knowing god like podium.
Please have patience with my mere mortal inquiry. For I do suffer flaws like the rest of us mortals.
Need you a sacrifice for me to display my devotion ?
Kend: So, you are saying the the US, and it's war criminal accomplices, should share all that fun with the Far East or Sweden? The fact that the Western war criminals are there to begin with is to control the oil so that they can more easily control prices (keep oil prices high); but, more importantly...hold that leverage over China and the others. Why would they want China in on what they are trying to control against unless they connived a very bad deal for China or the others? Also, the more the leading war criminals can entice or blackmail other countries to join in their crimes, the more they can claim unanimity in justifiable acts of violence against those they want to control.
You can practice anywhere Palin. I like your posts but too many words only equals too many details only equals too many little devils. I'd like to see us support the Thom Hartmann show and not use it as a mere platform to stand and whine off of. Especially if only for practice. If you want to practice something; practice how to get as many readers to read you as possible, not top your plate with as many pizza slices as possible from a buffet which isn't likely to close any year soon. Support and gain support. Grandstand and stand alone, until gravity kicks in, then comes an awkward fall. You know what the painter says, "The top step is always the smallest to stand upon, especially if no one's there to hold the ladder.