Recent comments
ADHD: Hunter in a Farmer's World
Thom Hartmann has written a dozen books covering ADD / ADHD - Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder.
Join Thom for his new twice-weekly email newsletters on ADHD, whether it affects you or a member of your family.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Workers have the "Right to Work" at non-union work places if they choose. Or the Union members at a business have the right to vote out the Union should they choose. Unions do not infringe on individual worker's rights.
Thanks Palindromedary. That was quite an education; and, revelation. You don't have to pin point every city in Japan, 67 cities firebombed is more than enough carnage to qualify as criminally insane. Like I said with the atomic bomb, one city was enough--maybe even that was too much. Two cities was too much. That was without knowing anything about the fire bombing campaigns.
As far as I'm concerned Curtis Lemay was absolutely right we all would have stood trial for war crimes if we lost. Rightly so! In addition, win or loose, the United States is guilty of the worst war crimes in history. To be fair, any "war" is a criminal act. However, it takes two to Tango. And there are no winners in war, only losers. The burden the United States must carry as the unprosecuted provocateur of these heinous deeds is a heavy burden indeed.
It's no wonder that so many people believe 9/11 was an inside job. This bunch of losers are capable of anything. Only a fool would believe that collateral 'damage' in a drone attack in Yemen is acceptable and whacking 3000 innocent Americans is unthinkable. Whenever the human rights of anyone anywhere is diminished we are all diminished.
I don't really care what you believe, God, The Holy Spirit, Karma, The Fates and The Furies, The Law of Entropy, but I know this: There is a Natural tendency in the Universe for everything to balance out. What comes around goes around. There will be a day of reckoning for these lawless, blood thirsty Savages amongst us as surely as the Sun will rise tomorrow. I for one do not want to be anywhere near this bunch of Creeps when that day is upon them. Their Fates are sealed! They'll surely wish they lost that war and got tried as war criminals. They'll also come to wish they were their own victims. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. And that Vengeance will make their war crimes look like a Sunday Barbecue.
Thanks again Palindromedary for showing the Light!
I'm annoyed by the common belief that China can call on our debt at any time. People need to understand that governments create debt by selling bonds that come due after a particular amount of time. Saturday Night Live has had skits in which the Chinese premier was angry about us owing them so much money, but that scenario is just ridiculous--for the wrong reason.
A related aspect that I'd like some right-wingers to learn is that the low interest rates we have right now are allowing the U.S. government to pay off old high-interest bonds with new low-interest bonds. So while the debt is growing, the overall interest rate on it is going down.
The concept of giri reminds me of an episode of The Office where Dwight and Andy kept trying to outdo each other in generosity to the other. At one point, Andy says to the camera, "Do not test my politeness." There's also an episode of The Big Bang Theory (I think it was a Christmas episode) in which Sheldon feels it necessary to give gifts of exactly equal value to what he receives so that no one will die owing anything.
People who harbor terroist and terrorist that hide behind innocent must be exposed by the victims themselves. Although the United States record in Central America is inexcusable. yet american corporations pulled the strings. Safety @ home from lead paint, or outraged spouse, or a catholic priest. sterotype all u want. Imperialism is a desease for power unregulated.
They will never miss a meal, They will never lose their homes. In fact they will probably profit when the taxpayers bail them out. We need to have a Congressional Reform Amenmdment.
The 28th Amendment Congressional Reform
1. Anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP}, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.
2. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow in to the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. Social Secutiy funds may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.
Congressional pay will rise by the lower of Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/1/14. The American people did not make these contract with Congressmen/women.
Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!
]~;^}>
Thankyou, I like that
Corrupt racketeers made tons of money during and after the Civil War, hence Robber Barons. It took a progressive republican to curttail the crony corporations, yet not until they got the supreme court to rule them as individuals protected under the 14th amendment, how's that for your constitution. And by the way do we have any progressives left in the GOP, I think not.
The Victor writes the History books, Japan pick a fight with the wrong country, and Germany was bombing London in 1940. Both Fire bombings were at the end of the war. Dresden in Febuary, Germany surrendered in May of 45. And only after the A-bombs were dropped did Japan surrender. Don't pick a fight if you can't suffer the consequence. The people in the Middle East are responsible for their governments. Just as we are for ours. Dictators or Corporations must be made to conform to the desires of the majority. Even our founding fathers debated the power of the masses.
nora: I certainly agree! The US is becoming more and more like the old Soviet Union...or ancient Rome. I just hope old Obama, or whoever succeeds him, doesn't go all Caligula or Nero on us.
So if worse comes to worst you think that's the way to wage war? er, fire bomb rather than drones?
Because what ever the whys or wherefores that one can call to mind the Axis were definitely bad actors toward the world at large and small.
And I share shame and angst along with ALL (that means you) of the US that more than a couple of our native corporations benefited from playing both sides of the fence with Germany in that dark period, just as they do in todays world. But the fact remains the same, there are some very bad actors on the stage, and we are not the worse whatever our faults.
There may very well have been more than 100 Japanese cities firebombed...those 67 cities listed were only the cities that the person at that web site noted as he/she paused the "Fog of War" DVD or tape frame by frame as the names of the cities flashed by and he/she took the effort to write them all down. I spent some time trying to find all those cities on that map of Japan that was also on that web site. I put a yellow magic marker dot on the circles denoting the cities. I couldn't find about half of those cities...I need a better, more detailed map (or, perhaps, we did so good a job of bombing them into oblivion they don't exist anymore?). But of the cities I did find it pretty much blanketed Japan's main Island.
Obama is the best individual for the job. We bombed Libya in the 80's. Why does it matter if you're an american citizen? A proven fact that some of our american citizens are depraved and deleterious. These people are deceptive and cowards and prey on the weak. Like the Indian savages. I have no issue with Drones nor do I have with torture. There is no honor in surrender. Think before we get in a situation whether it is worth to die for, if not don't provoke a fight. If you say defense is worthy enough to die for then so be it. Don't be surprised. John Dillinger was public enemy #1 did they give him a chance to surrender or just gunned him down. These so-called americans had their chance to surrender. We do have unity, that is why we can talk, debate, and defend or disagree with each others opinions. It is very interesting watching and following this massive manhunt for Christopher Doner. It sounds like he has decided to die for what he believes. As for me; vengeance is mine saith the Lord. One may ask when is enough, and time for retaliation. Now days some people do very bad things to one another and cry foul when retaliated against. I do not put all my trust in the government. Look what the United States did to their own veterans from WW1 General Douglas MacArthur massacre veterans in their tents protesting in Washington DC for payment due for their service. As Ronnie would say; "trust but verify" and that's why we have oversight commitees. Yet I must rely on my commander and chief to use jurisdictional judgement. Reagan used it in the full-on invasion of Grenada without congressional knowlege, and Bush 1 in Panama. And Bush 2 Lied to invade Iraq for his Oil buddies, thinking the Iraq people would just let'em control the oil. There is evil and must be dealt with. Some hide behind the constitution. Groups like Citizens United. Yes war is a racket and yes we do have an industrial military complex. Debate for a standing army was decided long ago between Hamilton and Jefferson in regards to an invasion from France or England.
Or, ancient Rome? The harbinger of dystopian disconnect came with the false flag of 9/11. They perpetrated something so shocking that it frightened most Americans out of their freedoms and liberty. They shocked them into a kind of cognitive dissonance leaving them too afraid to look into the facts. Many people admit that "they don't want to know"! It is too easy for them to fall into the trap of accepting the "official conspiracy theory" while out of hand rejecting all others as non-sense...because they've been psychologically manipulated to do so. We will soon have Blackwater (Xe-or whatever name they re-invent) patrolling our streets with foreign mercenaries) and armed drones patrolling our skies.
I would like to post a comment that responds to a caller, of last month's post Newtown, CT shooting. This commentary borders on environmental issues: a caller was inquiring about the validity of owning guns, and stated that guns are OK for dealing with vermin (I do not have exact quote). My thoughts are: gun ownership is ubiquitous, and behind the motivations of some gun owners is an incredible urge to use them to kill, that wildlife is again becoming a target. I speak of the wolves that are being targeted in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana; these wolves are enduring horrific ordeals. Can people such as this caller rethink the concept of "vermin" -- maybe target invasive species (not our natural heritage), species that probably don't have the excitement of going after intelligent animals such as wolves, because they (invasives) are typically fungus or microbes being brought over from foreign lands. Or go after mice and rats, or skeets, whatever. I speak of a lot of topics here, but the fundamental message is -- there is a war on wildlife, predominantly wolves. What can a citizen do to preserve our country's natural heritage?
Funny how the USA entered that Cold War during Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union. Stalin created every bit of nastiness the USA then turned into anti-Soviet propaganda points that moved Americans to support the Cold War:
o lack of true freedom of speech
o oppression with unjust courts
o disappearances of the undesireables into far-away prisons
o a system of domestic spying by a repressive government
o unresponsive, bloated bureaucracy
And NOW? Shockingly Bush II regressive policy has been embraced and further entrenched and enhanced by a Democratic President!
STALINISM is alive and well and growing in the United States of America.
Yup, if Stalin had had drones, he would've loved 'em.
Let the Republicans pillory Brennan for partisan reasons. The neo-cons now look insane to anyone who was watching when they were in charge - to watch them attack Hagel then Brennan provides delicious irony if not a clear defense of the rule of law.
The question is : "Where is the left that was against illegal war and all for prosecution of war crimes?" I doubt Brennan will be rejected but his response to the 2nd Independent New England Senator Angus King is chilling to say the least:
From the Democracy Now! transcript of 2013.02.08 show - Senate hearing on the previous day...
SEN. ANGUS KING: Having the executive being the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner, all in one, is very contrary to the traditions and the laws of this country, and particularly in a situation where there is time. If—a soldier on a battlefield doesn’t have time to go to court. But if you’re planning a strike over a matter of days, weeks or months, there is an opportunity to at least go to some outside-of-the-executive-branch body, like the FISA court, in a confidential and top-secret way, make the case that this American citizen is an enemy combatant.
JOHN BRENNAN: Senator, I think it’s certainly worthy of discussion. Our tradition, our judicial tradition, is that a court of law is used to determine one’s guilt or innocence for past actions, which is very different from the decisions that are made on the battlefield as well as actions that are taken against terrorists, because none of those actions are to determine past guilt for those actions that they took. The decisions that are made are to take action so that we prevent a future action, so we protect American lives. That is an inherently executive branch function.
The emphasis is mine, but the justification is clear: this is the same preemptive, first-strike policy of aggression that is a continuation (and yes, expansion) of the class A, crimes against peace of the Bush administration. The 'unitary executive policy'. To be fair and real about it, these [war] crimes have been committed by essentially all previous US administrations against Native Americans, Latin Americans, Southeast Asians, Southwest Asians and Africans. As such, it is a bit old hat - it really is no surprise. Obama made much the same argument in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
Yet, to hear the supposed expert administration of a Constitutional lawyer equate future possibility of attack with imminent self-defense and to claim due diligence from a laborious selection process whilst simultaneously claiming that all males over 18 are enemy combatants just because of where they are or who they might be near... it boggles the mind. It would be laughable but people are dying, and truly the justification is this: 'we can kill them just because they have a penis and they are in a certain part of Yemen [e.g.] and we know we are right because we carefully studied a single case of a local person who has a penis over several weeks and we have to kill them right now because they are an imminent threat to strike before we could even talk to anyone and anyway we can't talk to anyone because we have unilaterally declared it all a state secret.' I think I just threw up a little....
Lookat the stats that Chris Hayes presents - the host and all the guests missed the fact that even these admitedly vague and 'round' numbers on these strikes (drone only mind you) have killed on average one civilian in every strike. Ecuse me, but I hold 'innocent until proven guilty' as a basic human right of all people no matter what their gender or nationality or current residence.
In effect, it fatally criminalizes peoples' entire lives just upon where they happen to reside and their gender, even when they have ABSOLUTELY NO INTENDED OR ACTUAL EFFECT within the US. That is morally, ethically, Constitutionally and legally contrary to US and international law in more than one way. It is a clear violation of the principles of due process and habeas corpus which apply to citizen and non-citizen alike. It allows neither check nor balance by legislative or judicial branches - it is executive tyranny, All that before the whole secrecy aspect which doubles down and locks in the tyranny by making it a crime to talk about it if one should happen to really know what is going on.
Get this plain, constant, immutable fact: At the very least, there is no legal basis for withholding the abstract legal basis for administration actions in this area - NONE! Yet all that is available is a leaked white paper whose arguments are scorned by left and right alike. Check the "How America Kills" discussion on Up! with Chris Hayes this last weekend - a Hoover Institution conservative law professor who thinks we can take them out because we are at war - even he repeatedly makes the point that - legally - it doesn't matter whether or not they are citizens - due process and habeas corpus are recognized as basic principles of law in the US (and I note) they are both recognized as essential to the rule of law everywhere and they are both completely and irredeemably violated by summary execution.
The US was founded out of a document that comes from a basis in 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. Consider that any one of US would be understandably upset by the killing of our cousin, or our neighbors cousin by some unreachable foreign superpower. We would naturally foam at the mouth and speak words of revenge that we might well recant later on the basis of forgiveness or simply common sense. Does that make us terrorist and thereby anathema?
Finally, given the US dominance of the international arms market and the fact that tens of thousands of people are killed in Mexico and Colombia by weapons made in the US around black market drug trafficking that is created by US demand and the US Drug *>WAR<* (enforced by US internationally) -- by the same specious reasoning of the Obama administration -- MANY countries HAVE AN EVEN MORE VALID justification to undertake drone or special ops strikes against US weapons factories, US weapons exporters, US crack houses and low level or 'druglord' traffickers in the US no matter their citizenry. I say it is is even more valid because they do not have to resort to the sophistry of claiming self-defense against possible future actions - there is plenty of evidence of past actions - the number of Latin American Drug War deaths dwarfs the deaths on 9/11 and it includes many public officials. Consider that this reasoning even exposes the DEA and Customs to copy-cat blowback from South of the Border for the 'Fast and Furious' program.
My apologies to Mexico and Latin America - I intend no moral slander -- Ima just sayin' it looks fair within these specious arguments given by Brennan...
Brennan for head of the CIA? In a word -- NO.
Name of Japanese
city firebombed // Percentage of the
city destroyed// Equivalent in size to
the following American city:
Yokohama 58 Cleveland
Tokyo 51 New York
Toyama 99 Chattanooga
Nagoya 40 Los Angeles
Osaka 35.1 Chicago
Nishinomiya 11.9 Cambridge
Siumonoseki 37.6 San Diego
Kure 41.9 Toledo
Kobe 55.7 Baltimore
Omuta 35.8 Miami
Wakayama 50 Salt Lake City
Kawasaki 36.2 Portland
Okayama 68.9 Long Beach
Yawata 21.2 San Antonio
Kagoshima 63.4 Richmond
Amagasaki 18.9 Jacksonville
Sasebo 41.4 Nashville
Moh 23.3 Spokane
Miyakonoio 26.5 Greensboro
Nobeoka 25.2 Augusta
Miyazaki 26.1 Davenport
Hbe 20.7 Utica
Saga 44.2 Waterloo
Imabari 63.9 Stockton
Matsuyama 64 Duluth
Fukui 86 Evansville
Tokushima 85.2 Ft. Wayne
Sakai 48.2 Forth Worth
Hachioji 65 Galveston
Kumamoto 31.2 Grand Rapids
Isezaki 56.7 Sioux Falls
Takamatsu 67.5 Knoxville
Akashi 50.2 Lexington
Fukuyama 80.9 Macon
Aomori 30 Montgomery
Okazaki 32.2 Lincoln
Oita 28.2 Saint Joseph
Hiratsuka 48.4 Battle Creek
Tokuyama 48.3 Butte
Yokkichi 33.6 Charlotte
Uhyamada 41.3 Columbus
Ogaki 39.5 Corpus Christi
Gifu 63.6 Des Moines
Shizuoka 66.1 Oklahoma City
Himeji 49.4 Peoria
Fukuoka 24.1 Rochester
Kochi 55.2 Sacramento
Shimizu 42 San Jose
Omura 33.1 Sante Fe
Chiba 41 Savannah
Ichinomiya 56.3 Sprinfield
Nara 69.3 Boston
Tsu 69.3 Topeka
Kuwana 75 Tucson
Toyohashi 61.9 Tulsa
Numazu 42.3 Waco
Chosi 44.2 Wheeling
Kofu 78.6 South Bend
Utsunomiya 43.7 Sioux City
Mito 68.9 Pontiac
Sendai 21.9 Omaha
Tsuruga 65.1 Middleton
Nagaoka 64.9 Madison
Hitachi 72 Little Rock
Kumagaya 55.1 Kenosha
Hamamatsu 60.3 Hartford
Maebashi 64.2 Wheeling
http://www.ditext.com/japan/napalm.html
Who even hesitates to step on a bug? Why? Because that bug doesn't have the capability of fighting back..and because we are on a different level of caring. We consider the bugs as pests. Or, maybe we are all jealous because we know that even after mankind nukes itself to oblivion, the lowly cockroach will still survive. The meek shall inherit the earth, you know, it says so in my Flying Spaghetti Monster Bible.
The Jains care so much they drink through a cheese cloth so as not to harm the bugs in the event they are in what they are drinking. It's not so much "eew a bug!". It's "aww poor bug...run along now, fellow life form."
If our pets were much, much bigger and more powerful than they are now...they'd eat us!
That's why we all need to be heavily armed. Having lots of weapons puts us in a different class than just being abused pets or lowly bugs.
There will come a day when the authorities are not the only ones flying armed drones in our skies. Some rebellious numbers of persons may very easily construct them in their own garages. Then, I suppose they will have to write new laws limiting the number of Tomahawk missiles that can be carried on the drones at any one time. Perhaps force these people, if they know who they are, to pass a psychological test before they can buy certain materials like epoxy resin and carbon fiber. Sorry boatbuilders, you're outta luck...you've got to be declared and blessed by some psychiatrist as being sane and not prone to making drones.
Dresden, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc, etc, etc....
DAnneMarc..Yes, I had read that some time ago..that we firebombed many of the cities in Japan before we finally dropped the A-bombs. Since most of the structures in Japan were built of very flammable material..mostly wood and paper it all quickly became a raging firestorm leaving few survivors. Which made the use of the A-bombs quite unnecessary except as a "look what we can do!" to the Russians. I didn't know it was 100 cities but here is a web site that lists 67 cities and their equivalent size to American cities.
http://www.ditext.com/japan/napalm.html
"The Fog of War" was another of the great documentary films of years ago that I remember. That, and the Vietnam series I watched back in the early 80's.
The US had also firebombed cities in Germany although I don't think it was quite as bad as in Japan. Most of their cities were built of concrete but they still had raging firestorms that killed many, many civilians. Even cooked them to death in bunkers.
I think there was a lot of xenophobia and racism involved. I remember watching these propaganda cartoons that showed Japs caricatured as rats...with slanty eyes.
Many people in the US were of German ethnic background and many well placed US citizens, including Charles Lindbergh, were even somewhat agreeable with what Germany was up to. US Bankers and Chemical companies, ball bearing manufacturers used in the German planes, IBM tabulating (punch card) machines, all doing business with the Nazis. If you want to read some interesting stuff about all of that..Edwin Black has written many books on both the Nazis and the US, the war, the Eugenics programs, etc. Not many people know that Hitler got some of his ideas on Eugenics from the US that had already done a lot in that area.
Japan was quite different. There were not that many in the US to object..besides we had the Japanese all rounded up in concentration camps...not so the Germans.
The Japanese government and military weren't too kind to the Chinese..especially in Nanking where they made sport of lopping off heads. In Manchuria they converted a factory into a biological warfare lab where they experimented on Chinese citizens, and others. There was a lot of reason to hate the Japanese government and military but at least they didn't have death camps set up like the Germans did.
The problem, of course, is that the people, the civilians, suffered greatly all because of their criminal leaders. We in the US have been very spoiled never having experienced much of that except, maybe for 9/11. And 9/11 was not even a pimple on a gnats behind compared to what many other countries have experience at the hand of the US military.
As McNamara admitted what he heard Curtis Lemay say once after the firebombing of Germany and Japan: "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." "And I think he's right," says McNamara. "He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals." . . . "LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose and not immoral if you win?" Maybe that's why the US spends so much on the military...if ever another country was so superior to the US...they'd hang the lot of the war criminals in the US military, government, and corporations.
What the US did to Germany and Japan was worse than what Germany alone did to all those people in their death camps. Only difference was that it took the Germans a lot longer to do it in the gas chambers and ovens on the ground. It took a lot less time and effort for the genocide that the US did in Germany and Japan. And they have been doing it to millions of other people ever since.
DAnneMarc- Thank you for your suggestion. I actually have a bible on hand. Always been tempted to read it, but a little freaked out about being sucked into the vortex, so I figure it'll be my "last read". Knowwhatimean? ;-)
G'night
Thank you MMmmNachos! And good night to you! I may wake up in distress; but, I will sleep well. Thank you!!
A good soldier is not violent.
A good fighter is not angry.
A good winner is not vengful.
A good employer is humble.
Tao Te Ching
Whenever you advise a ruler in the way of Tao,
Counsel him not to use force to conquer the Universe.
For this would only cause resistance.
Thorn bushes spring up wherever the army has passed.
Lean years follow in the wake of a great war.
Just do what needs to be done;
Never take advantage of power.
Acheive results.......But never glory in them.
Acheive results.......But never boast.
Acheive results......But never be proud.
Acheive results......Because this is the natural way.
Acheive results.....But not through violence.
Force is followed by loss of strength.
This is not the way of Tao.
That which goes against the Tao
....Comes to an early end.
Tao Te Ching by Lau Tsu