A Fascist would argue that if Civil Society expends treasure to build a viable military in order to support , protect, and expand a Civil Society it is more efficient to put that power to task and engage it in the enterprise of obtaining resource through conquest for the sake of further expansion of the culture in question. Basically building Empire.

The pacifist argues that as surely as Empire expands through military conquest beyond it's capacity to maintain that Empire, Foreign resistance builds to the point that the "Empire" eventually fails with catastrophic consequence.

Abbot and Costello; How can " Who" be on first if " First" is up to bat and "Who" is on second ?

Corporations are using complicated chains of holding companies and offshore bank accounts to avoid USA taxes. Since corporations are now considered "people" they should be prosecuted for tax evasion. Their assets should be seized and the officers of the corporation should spend time in jail. But of course corporations and banks have used their bribes and donations to turn our government into Crazy World. Crazy World is a place where CEO's of banks and corporations are never help accountable to anyone and never have to pay their fair share of taxes. I pray for political leaders who will point this out and re-institute federal regulations the way President Roosevelt did. Our current leaders just dance around the issue of bank and corporate corruption. They do the crazy marionette dance with the corporations, banks, and CEO's pulling the strings.

Oh come on now! "Our President cannot do this alone."? All he does is say a few things he thinks we want to hear but he has no intention of really going to bat for the people who elected him. Like that very smooth way he handled that very brave heckling by Medea Benjamin...very smooth indeed...I almost had pleasant thoughts about Obama at that moment until I caught myself being suckered in by his smooth demeanor and yet more sucker words that he really didn't mean. Contrast the looks on his face while MB was ranting...and then contrast that with the words that came later...total BS!

Let's not let up on the pressure on Obama and our politicians by trying to "support" their lies. The only reason why Obama sounds like he is even remotely "trying" to change things is because of the obviously contradictory positions he has supported...and is getting a lot of flack over it.

Torture/death camps in Gitmo and elsewhere. Death Drones killing Americans not to mention the hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children in the Middle East. Continued prosecution of whistleblowers which is just such a stark contrast to his lies of an open government. His continued protection of his war criminal predecessors. Continued fleecing of American jobs by the wealthy elites whose teats Obama is clinging to and expects to continue doing so until after he goes through those golden turnstiles of corporate quid pro quo racketeering.

So don't "support" him...keep "hounding" him...hound him and all of his criminal ruling elite straight to hell if necessary. If you "support" him...you have psychologically given in to them..which is just the way they play the game...they have you just where they want you....and they will continue to ratchet up their oppression...because you have let your guard down...again.

Way to go..Medea Benjamin! You keep the pressure on! And thank you for that!

Quote leighmf:Just like few thought it was suspicious that Nixon was lead counsel for Pepsico and left the Bottlers Convention in Dallas hours before The Assassination which motorcade would have taken another route were it not for the Convention

leighmf ~ Interesting indeed! There is a lot of stuff out there about the Nixon/JFK connection. Nixon was the incumbent Vice President under Eisenhower before JFK was elected. He is often attributed with orchestrating the infamous October Surprise which was to be the invasion of Cuba just after being elected President. When JFK was elected instead he heard about the plan too late and tried to stop it. That caused the "Bay of Pigs." Here's an interesting story by Mark Tracy that expands on the Pepsi Cola link you've provided:

http://mtracy9.tripod.com/kennedy.html

Mark Tracy expands on the Pepsi link and links it to Cuba.

Quote Mark Tracy:Both Nixon and Crawford made comments in the Dallas newspapers to the effect that they, unlike the President, didn't need Secret Service protection, and they intimated that the nation was upset with Kennedy's policies. It has been suggested that this taunting may have been responsible for Kennedy's critical decision not to order the Plexiglas top placed on his limousine on November 22." [Notes: The Pepsi-Cola company had a sugar plantation and factory in Cuba, which the Cuban government nationalized in 1960; CIA contract agent Chauncey Holt toldNewsweek magazine in 1991 that Pepsi-Cola President Donald Kendall was "considered by the CIA to be the eyes and ears of the CIA" in the Caribbean; a photograph taken on November 21, 1963 — the day before the assassination — shows Donald Kendall meeting with Richard Nixon in Dallas. Click to view]*

There is also an interesting segment in the article linking the Watergate break in and the JFK assassination:

Quote Mark Tracy:Other facts linking Nixon to the JFK assassination emerged after Nixon had become President, during the Watergate conspiracy. In his memoir, The Ends of Power, former White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman cites several conversations in which President Nixon expressed concern about the Watergate affair becoming public knowledge and where this exposure might lead. Haldeman writes:

"In fact, I was puzzled when he [Nixon] told me, 'Tell Ehrlichman this whole group of Cubans [Watergate burglars] is tied to the Bay of Pigs.' After a pause I said, 'The Bay of Pigs? What does that have to do with this [the Watergate burglary]?' But Nixon merely said, 'Ehrlichman will know what I mean,' and dropped the subject."

Later in his book, Haldeman appears to answer his own question when he says, "It seems that in all of those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, he was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination."

If Haldeman's interpretation is correct, then Nixon's instructions for him to, "Tell Ehrlichman this whole group of [anti-Castro] Cubans is tied to the Bay of Pigs," was Nixon's way of telling him to inform Ehrlichman that the Watergate burglars were tied to Kennedy's murder. (It should be noted that many Cuban exiles blamed Kennedy for the failure to overthrow Castro at the Bay of Pigs, pointing to Kennedy's refusal to allow the U.S. military to launch a full-scale invasion of the island.)

Mark also cites sworn eye witness testimony that Nixon aide E. Howard Hunt was seen paying an assassination team in Dallas the night before the assassination:

Quote Mark Tracy:Several reports over the years have placed Hunt in Dallas at the time of the Kennedy assassination. In 1974, the Rockefeller Commission concluded that Hunt used eleven hours of sick leave from the CIA in the two-week period preceding the assassination. Later, eyewitness Marita Lorenz testified under oath that she saw Hunt pay off an assassination team in Dallas the night before Kennedy's murder. (Hunt v. Liberty Lobby; U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; 1985) Click to read transcript

In taped conversations with Haldeman, Nixon is obviously worried about what would happen if Hunt's involvement in the Watergate conspiracy came to light. Nixon says, "Of course, this Hunt, that will uncover a lot of things. You open that scab, there's a hell of a lot of things, and we feel that it would be very detrimental to have this thing go any further ... the President's belief is that this is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again." Click to Listen: President Nixon instructs Haldeman on what to tell the CIA (text below)

He then ends the article with this bombshell from Nixon's own recorded mouth:

Quote Mark Tracy:On the tape, recorded in May of 1972, the president confided to two top aides that the Warren Commission pulled off 'the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.' Unfortunately, he did not elaborate."

'The greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.' Back in the day that was true. But now, the 911 Commission has taken its place in the history book of 'greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated.' When crooks don't get caught they always try to out do themselves. I wonder what the next 'greatest hoax ever perpetrated' will be?

Quote Alex Jones at infowars:As of March 2013 Apple reported having a total of $145 billion cash on hand, but $102 billion was stashed in offshore funds. On April 24, CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would return $100 billion to shareholders by the end of 2015. To finance the expanded capital return, Apple will raise its dividend 15 percent and increase its share buyback program six-fold to $60 billion. In other words, Apple is going to go into debt, for the first time in more than a decade, in order to keep investors happy.

Why go into debt? Why not just use some of those offshore billions they’ve got lying around gathering dust? Because, to bring that money into the U.S., Apple would have to pay a 35 percent corporate tax. Why pay an outrageous tax bill when a company with a AA-rating like Apple’s can borrow money at a 1.9% interest rate?

Well that explains what Apple is doing. So is the Government mad because Apple found a loophole in the loophole to make their little investors happy? Is the Government that dedicated to keeping common people out of "easy" finance?

I still don't quite get it. Anyone else got an explanation?

Read more at infowars:

http://www.infowars.com/senate-subcomittee-investigating-apples-offshore-tax-practices/

And just what good is telling Apple that we don't like what their doing. Just as the fact we have passed the point of no return in green house gasses permeating the atmosphere and the ozone layer, we have passed the point of no return of getting back to a representative congress.

It,s not up to Obama it,s up to us and the belief,s we hold about the world.

Do we believe war is necessary in resolving our differences despit the fact that we have more terror, this can only be resolved by spiritual means .We must challenge the teaching,s of Organised religion not challenge each other as it,s the teachings that separate us .Also the problem is the interpretation and the infallibility of the religious teaching,s.

There was a British soldier killed in the middle of the day in the street ,the young men who did this belives 100 percent that what they did was right and that is the sad thing .He claimed that what the British government are doing to the people of Afghanastan the people of the uk have to witness for themselves to understand what,s really going on.He went on to say that these killings will continue until the uk government pull there troops out of Muslim countries and its up to the British people to vote them out if they want peace.

He quoted an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth .But as we know this religious teaching only makes the world blind.And violence only lead,s to more violence and this is why Humanity has to transcend the teaching,s some of them well meaning but incomplete and misunderstood teaching,s off organised religion.

namaste

Quote historywriter:We don't care if we ruin small, beautiful towns along the Mississippi river in Wisconsin, towns like Stockholm, Maiden Rock, Pepin, if we can make a buck or two--most of which will not ever end up in workers' pockets but in the pockets of the big corporate interests who are trying to mine everything that might dredge up a dollar.

These people do not have souls. They either sold them or they checked in without one,

Can't argue with that! That's a good one! ;-)

"These people .... (corporations???)......don't have souls"?????

Say it ain't so.

Quote DRichards:'Obama Must be Taken Before ICC for the War on Terror' - Noam Chomsky By RT The US war on terror is in fact the most massive terror campaign ever, and the invasion of Iraq was the worst crime in recent history, prominent liberal thinker Noam Chomsky told RT, adding that he wants to see Bush, Blair and Obama tried at the ICC.

The esteemed Mr. Chomsky is right! President Obama knew he had the obligation to investigate the previous Administration for War Crimes and failed--in two terms. Instead he has continued and expanded the illegal and immoral agenda. They all need a day of reckoning!

Ptg, Gas is more than $5.00 per gallon here in Canada. We have a 60% tax on it to help pay for our free health care. No we are not smart at all we are doing everything tour current government wants to do.

I do agree change the tax code and keep the money in America. Works great we tax the hell out of those American oil companies.

The United States will get, at best, less than 40% of the oil. The rest will be exported.

Remember Faust? He had nothing on the big corporations and many of the citizens of this country in being willing to sell off U.S. treasures for oil. Let's dig up the Grand Canyon (some are trying to do tha). Let's mine whatever is in the wilderness Boundary Waters Canoe Area--copper, oil, whatever. We don't care if the pristine (nearly so) waters of that beautiful area are polluted and no one wants to go there anymore (robbing the north country of its sources of income. We don't care if we ruin small, beautiful towns along the Mississippi river in Wisconsin, towns like Stockholm, Maiden Rock, Pepin, if we can make a buck or two--most of which will not ever end up in workers' pockets but in the pockets of the big corporate interests who are trying to mine everything that might dredge up a dollar.

These people do not have souls. They either sold them or they checked in without one,