How the World Forgot About Iraq

How the World Forgot About Iraq by PATRICK COCKBURN

This report provides insight into the state of Iraq today. America should be so ashamed and humbled by what was wrought on that country in our name.

Jumping ahead to a conclusion: at the very top of the list of corrective actions we so badly need to undertake is the prosecution of Bush and the neocon gang for war crimes.

Why is this so important that it should be job # 1 for America? Because the invasion of Iraq represents the corruption of justice at the highest level of our being, and without justice we have nothing.


Bill

Guilt, Not PTSD, Is What Afflicts Iraq War Veterans

Guilt, Not PTSD, Is What Afflicts Iraq War Veterans by Jacob G. Hornberger

I'm sure there are several good solutions to the underlying problem, but the one that I believe will work is to take the money out of the election system (by moving it to the Internet in a grand way). If we do this we can then elect people who are more concerned with justice then the bidding of their benefactors.

Update, from The Battle Still Rages Over What Vietnam Means by JOHN GRANT

"The elephant in the room no one seemed willing to recognize was the idea of moral damage. Asking bright, strong young men like Hunt to fight wars like Iraq and Afghanistan — and Vietnam before that — can be like luring an unsuspecting animal into a trap. The bait is the powerful call to do something good for your country, to sacrifice for a larger purpose. The trap, of course, is the fact wars like Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam are never what the drumbeat of homefront-oriented propaganda says they are.

For the Claude Rains character in Casablanca an expression of shock that there is gambling going on at Rick’s nightclub is an ironic joke on the French officer’s corruption. But for some young Americans, the discovery that there is dissimulation in the corridors of power in Washington — that the war he or she has been sent to sacrifice in is not what it was billed to be — is a true shock to the moral system they may be unable to accommodate or escape."

Just What Do Hedge Fund Honchos Do For a Million Bucks an Hour? by Joshua Holland

"For example, while the top movie stars averaged about $21,000 per hour, (which is nothing to sneeze at), the top hedge fund guys averaged a whopping $843,000 per hour. It was a revelation."

It's long been a curiosity to me as to exactly what hedge fund managers actually do. In this article, and his book, Joshua Holland explains it in such a way that I can understand. Highly recommended reading.



Bill

Noam Chomsky on American Empire

7 Brilliant Insights from Noam Chomsky on American Empire By Laura Gottesdiener

To which, a reader 'Moszep' replies:

"The main thrust of the article-i.e. issues with American hegemony- is Chomsky at his best. He accurately argues how these serious issues that have driven much recent history. It should be noted that under the heading of Globalization he points out that it is not just the American government pushing for this. I think many people overlook this to rationalize anti-American rhetoric.

I would like to hear what solutions Chomsky offers?

Better still, I would like to hear what solutions readers here have to offer. How do we change this world for the better? What realistic, viable, sustainable solution do we have?"

And I reply to him:

The solution, when you think it through, is to remove money from the election process. This way we can elect people who actually do represent us and our attitude about the world around us. Believe it or not, the majority of people (anywhere) are "builders", while those with the power today are "destroyers" (people are one or the other: C. G. Jung). This is a fundamental difference in attitude between the American people and it's rulers. It must be reversed and control over our country and our destiny must be returned to the people - before it's too late. We are on a trajectory today that is going where none of us want to go. Only destroyers want to stay the course. Time and time again the majority of people have said they don't want war, but they send their children to battle anyway. We can't openly rebel because they'll jail us all,but we can vote them out by fixing the election system. Do it as a world-wide open source software project, bringing the smartest programmers together to solve the relatively few vexing problems involved with setting up, operating, protecting and overseeing the system. The software would be the property of the UN, and individual countries can use it or not.


[ed note: I wrote this in 10 minutes because right now I'm too busy to spend the hours it would take to write it better, and I just never seem to find that much extra time; so I decided to just type the chain of thoughts, to at least contribute something. Maybe someone will have a thought that will lead to a thought, etc. Maybe not.


Bill

She survived Hitler and wants to warn America

She survived Hitler and wants to warn America by Rob Kerby

This very moving article may well be disinformation:

“Then they took our guns

“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily."

Touching testimony, but why would it include a serious distortion, if not outright lie? See this article on the 1st point quoted:

Gun Control in Germany, 1928-1945 by William L. Pierce

What do you think?

“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”

This is my eye-witness account."

On the creeping gradualism, I think we're in full swing, and repeating something typically takes a fraction of the time it took to do it the first time.

From today's news, another example of the creep: cars requiring black boxes.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/12/black-boxes-privacy/

This is one more significant privacy invasion. Unfortunately it joins a long and growing list. At what point are we totally controlled?


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Related, I think, is this article on "preppers":

50 Shocking Questions That You Should Ask To Anyone That Is Not A Prepper Yet by Michael Snyder

He basically uses facts to paint a picture of how America is falling apart at the seams, and prepping makes a lot of sense.

Could it be these articles are related in the sense that with all of the problems on this list - and some really big ones not mentioned - would we, in this day and age, let a dictator in to solve them? 98% of Austrians voted Hitler in. Certainly is a lesson there.



Bill

al Mechka, al Gotcha, etc

In an interesting article about withdrawal from Afghanistan is this mention of a very commonly held belief:

"One of the preeminent fears that the U.S. and other Western countries have is the possible return of an al Qaeda safe haven"

Let's look at this from another angle: suppose a new, or 10 new, organizations emerged, with names like al Mechka, al Gotcha, etc., for the purpose of disappearing the name al Qaeda. Nothing else changes, just the name.

I could write on and on about this concept, but it's not necessary: the light bulb has been lit, and the writing is on the wall.

That such a simple concept has completely escaped the great thinkers who have led this country into one invasion after the other to rid the world of al Qaeda says a whole lot about their sanity.


Bill

How to Allocate Your Time, and Your Effort by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

"The rules changed when I started my own business over seven years ago. I realized that doing A-work in everything limited my success. At that point I realized that I needed to focus more on my strengths. As Tom Rath wisely explains in his StrengthsFinder books, you can achieve more success by fully leveraging your strengths instead of constantly trying to shore up your weaknesses. Realizing the importance of purposely deciding where I will invest more time and energy to produce stellar quality work and where less-than-perfect execution has a bigger payoff has had a profound impact on my own approach to success and my ability to empower clients who feel overwhelmed."

An interesting perspective on time management.



The Internet, As Seen By High Schoolers by Bianca Bosker


Looks like Facebook has serious competition among teens with Tumblr.


Are Israel and the U.S. Becoming Fascist States? by Philip Giraldi

In a nutshell, the answer is "yes".



Bill

Our Collapsing Economy and Currency

Our Collapsing Economy and Currency by Paul Craig Roberts


This article should be read, studied, thought about and acted on.

It ends with:

"No one in the White House and no more than one dozen members of the 535 member US Congress represents the American people. This is the reason that despite obvious remedies nothing can be done. America is going to crash big time.

And the rest of the world will be thankful. America along with Israel is the world’s most hated country. Don’t expect any foreign bailouts of the failed “superpower.”"

If you get to the end of this article, you will have read the part where Mr Roberts
offers a 2 part solution.

"The solution is to reverse the outward flow of jobs and to bring them back to the US

The second part to the solution is to end the expensive unfunded wars that have ruined the federal budget for the past 11 years as well as future budgets"

Bill