Afghanistan: Is It Really the End Game? by Conn Hallinan
"With the exception of the current U.S. commander in Afghanistan, virtually everyone has concluded that the war has been a disaster for all involved."
One more giant disaster in the wake of America having been duped into invading the Middle East at the behest of interests certainly not American. Greedy politicians, "war is a racket" lunatic warmongers, morally bankrupt Wall Street and the totally misguided Zionists have not only broken our world but still have us duped about it - as they pull us by the noses into still more - and very likely much greater destruction then we have ever known.
You, I, none of us - cannot enjoy the fruits of our labor and live a good life while so many millions of people around the world hate us for what's been done - and is being done - to them in our name. And every time they look up in the sky to see one or "our" killer drones flying around and ready to murder them for hating us, they hate us more.
Fascinating.
The only possible explanation for this behavior is the people behind it truly believe that might is right and their God is bigger and badder then their enemies God. Why haven't these people read Thomas Paine, or at least the "You must not murder" order in their own Ten Commandments?
Nah, none of this matters to these people. Only power, money and more power and more money matters. It simply doesn't matter how many people they have to kill and put down in all the ways man can be evil to man, just as long as they wind up with the power and the money all is well.
And, worst case, they lose their bid for military authority in the Middle East, and that brings about terrible consequences for you and I, they will not be bothered by any of it. While our lives will be damaged or destroyed, they'll simply whisk away in their helicopters to luxurious retreats long at the ready.
These "might is right" people believe that the best defense is an offense, which is why they are working on getting a war started with the next county on their list, perhaps Syria. They still have their hands in our pockets funding their invasion, and they will spend our children's lives and our money until every last ounce of blood and nickel is spent on their ill-fated, stupid, bloody crusade.
Make no mistake about it: the people who pulled all the strings to dupe America into invading the Middle East are evil. There is no goodness, no heart, no conscience, no kindness, no guilt, no love coming from any of them to any of us.
Yet we let them continue to rule us. How is this possible? How is it accomplished? It's actually easy: by controlling our information supply, our Congress, our election system and our justice system they've seized control of our country, effectively.
I'll elaborate elsewhere, but I'm committed to designing an election system that will remove them from power (in a nutshell). I don't see any other way, and I fear if we wait too long they will eventually bring all the hatred they've created down on us.
Bill
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent
Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent by Glenn Greenwald
I've quoted a lot from this article because I can't say these things better then Glenn Greenwald, but these are only tidbits. Please read the whole article for a fuller sense of what he's saying.
Bill
I've quoted a lot from this article because I can't say these things better then Glenn Greenwald, but these are only tidbits. Please read the whole article for a fuller sense of what he's saying.
"That the Obama administration is now repeatedly declaring that the "war on terror" will last at least another decade (or two) is vastly more significant than all three of this week's big media controversies (Benghazi, IRS, and AP/DOJ) combined.
...
It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purpose other than its own eternal perpetuation. This war is not a means to any end but rather is the end in itself. Not only is it the end itself, but it is also its own fuel: it is precisely this endless war - justified in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism - that is the single greatest cause of that threat.
...
The genius of America's endless war machine is that, learning from the unplesantness of the Vietnam war protests, it has rendered the costs of war largely invisible.
...
Though rarely visible, the costs are nonetheless gargantuan. Just in financial terms, as Americans are told they must sacrifice Social Security and Medicare benefits and place their children in a crumbling educational system, the Pentagon remains the world's largest employer ...
...
This war will end only once Americans realize the vast and multi-faceted costs they are bearing so that the nation's political elites can be empowered and its oligarchs can further prosper. But Washington clearly has no fear that such realizations are imminent.
...
Nobody really even knows with whom the US is at war, or where. Everyone just knows that it is vital that it continue in unlimited form indefinitely.
...
The key lesson from all of this should have been learned long ago: nothing is less reliable than unchecked claims from political officials that their secret conduct is justified by National Security Threats and the desire to Keep Us Safe."
Bill
Thursday, May 16, 2013
How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists
How the US Turned Three Pacifists into Violent Terrorists by Fran Quigley
You just can't make this stuff up.
Where is the outcry? These people acted heroically on our behalf - and we're sitting silently while they are sent to prison for the rest of their lives. Is this possible? Am I dreaming, and this is just another PTSD nightmare?
That the MSM has no interest in helping these people is just further evidence - if any were needed - of their collusion with the same alien forces that have seized control of our systems.
Aliens are entities that look and talk like us, but aren't us. They don't represent us, but they sure do rule us. And as I have observed over the six and a half decades of my life, incrementally, like a drip-drip, seized one power after another, crippling the essential ingredients of our Constitution and even using it against us, while they gain money, power and influence over our world.
Systems is a better word then government because these forces control so much more then just government - they control other major systems, our information supply at the top. They decide the issues we'll talk about and those we don't. Bush and his gang aren't put on trial for war crimes because that's not an issue, according to the same MSM that programmed the people to invade Iraq.
There is no outcry, just silence, on a matter of such huge importance: the terrible, terrible, horrible weapons themselves. We have the biggest pile on Earth, and the whole pile keeps growing. We live in a world today that makes Dr. Strangelove a minor effort to describe.
These folks gave their lives, effectively, to try and stop this madness. And we watch them silently being hauled off to jail, to die there.
I think the control that's being exercised here has been building for such a long time that we've become numb to it. Take the Cuban missile crisis, from when I was a teenager. I bet I've read at least ten thousand mentions/articles/references to this one event over the years since. How many times do you have to tell people that we were an inch from oblivion until they accept that we've done it, we'll do it again, and that's it's part of the human condition.
Wake up people. An authoritarian society is the opposite of a free society. You can't have it both ways.
Yet we do know that, and we keep watching the powers that be as they grab still more power, wondering if there is any limit to their appetite. That's been said before, hasn't it?
Where is our support for these people?
What I hear is the sound of apathy. People read their newspapers, they listen to the radio and watch the TV do get their information. Later, in discussions, if any, they will quote their MSM source with pride, as if knowing what the MSM is saying making them well informed, which in turn recruits them into the propaganda machine, and so it goes, round and round.
There is something we can do: install a taxpayer funded Internet based election system. I can see how to do it effectively and securely, but what I really hope for is someone with a better design. The objective is to seek out and elect intelligent, educated people to represent us fairly. We've gotten so far from this objective that only the blind can't see it.
Bill
You just can't make this stuff up.
Where is the outcry? These people acted heroically on our behalf - and we're sitting silently while they are sent to prison for the rest of their lives. Is this possible? Am I dreaming, and this is just another PTSD nightmare?
That the MSM has no interest in helping these people is just further evidence - if any were needed - of their collusion with the same alien forces that have seized control of our systems.
Aliens are entities that look and talk like us, but aren't us. They don't represent us, but they sure do rule us. And as I have observed over the six and a half decades of my life, incrementally, like a drip-drip, seized one power after another, crippling the essential ingredients of our Constitution and even using it against us, while they gain money, power and influence over our world.
Systems is a better word then government because these forces control so much more then just government - they control other major systems, our information supply at the top. They decide the issues we'll talk about and those we don't. Bush and his gang aren't put on trial for war crimes because that's not an issue, according to the same MSM that programmed the people to invade Iraq.
There is no outcry, just silence, on a matter of such huge importance: the terrible, terrible, horrible weapons themselves. We have the biggest pile on Earth, and the whole pile keeps growing. We live in a world today that makes Dr. Strangelove a minor effort to describe.
These folks gave their lives, effectively, to try and stop this madness. And we watch them silently being hauled off to jail, to die there.
I think the control that's being exercised here has been building for such a long time that we've become numb to it. Take the Cuban missile crisis, from when I was a teenager. I bet I've read at least ten thousand mentions/articles/references to this one event over the years since. How many times do you have to tell people that we were an inch from oblivion until they accept that we've done it, we'll do it again, and that's it's part of the human condition.
Wake up people. An authoritarian society is the opposite of a free society. You can't have it both ways.
Yet we do know that, and we keep watching the powers that be as they grab still more power, wondering if there is any limit to their appetite. That's been said before, hasn't it?
Where is our support for these people?
What I hear is the sound of apathy. People read their newspapers, they listen to the radio and watch the TV do get their information. Later, in discussions, if any, they will quote their MSM source with pride, as if knowing what the MSM is saying making them well informed, which in turn recruits them into the propaganda machine, and so it goes, round and round.
There is something we can do: install a taxpayer funded Internet based election system. I can see how to do it effectively and securely, but what I really hope for is someone with a better design. The objective is to seek out and elect intelligent, educated people to represent us fairly. We've gotten so far from this objective that only the blind can't see it.
Bill
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
The View From Abroad
The View From Abroad by Fred Reed
In case you haven't wondered what the rest of the world thinks about America these days ...
Bill
In case you haven't wondered what the rest of the world thinks about America these days ...
"The United States is the most hated country in the world, followed closely by Israel, and then by nobody. Why? Why not Ecuador? China? Russia? East Timor? The hostility puzzles many Americans, who genuinely believe their country to be a force for good, a pillar of democracy, a defender of human rights.
To the rest of the world, none of this is even close."
Bill
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Crucifixion of Tomas Young
The Crucifixion of Tomas Young By Chris Hedges
Bill
"Young will die for our sins. He will die for a war that should never have been fought. He will die for the lies of politicians. He will die for war profiteers. He will die for the careers of generals. He will die for a cheerleader press. He will die for a complacent public that made war possible. He bore all this upon his body. He was crucified. And there are hundreds of thousands of other crucified bodies like his in Baghdad and Kandahar and Peshawar and Walter Reed medical center. Mangled bodies and corpses, broken dreams, unending grief, betrayal, corporate profit, these are the true products of war. Tomas Young is the face of war they do not want you to see."
Bill
Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Worst Mistake in U.S. History
The Worst Mistake in U.S. History -- America Will Never Recover from Bush's Great Foreign Policy Disaster By Peter Van Buren
Somehow, despite the fact that this is a very well written article by a very knowledgeable person, it falls short of nailing his thesis. He should talk with Phil Donahue and take a look at the Lobby.
He should find a way to summarize what Nick Turse describes, and I stand witness to.
And Bradley Manning case going on now exemplifies how easily it is for evil to beat the shit out of good.
And maybe the title should include the word Justice. Good ol' Justice. What happened to it? Justice was as American as apple pie when I grew up. Now its a word nobody even uses. The travesty of justice that was Bush, Cheney and the neocons invasion of the middle east, in a nutshell, destroyed and obliterated this country's notion of justice - so much so that nobody talks about it anymore. As recently as Nixon we thought we were taught a lesson in how justice will in the end prevail. Was it really another charade, and Nixon's removal from office was not really an eruption of justice after all, just the sword of Brutus?
We have the facts now. The story of Building 7 is by itself a vein of golden information Read all about it. Combine this with the story of the "dancing Israeli's" and it becomes a fact that some people knew of the attack in advance. Is there more evil to be uncovered there?
Combine these facts, put them together, and what do you see? What I see is a force of evil pushing aside my notion of good. I see justice trampled more rapidly in this generation then all preceding. I see tools and weapons with incredible power in the hands of evil people.
The biggest tool the force of good has going for it is the facts. We're sitting today on a veritable mountain of facts that support the argument against evil. What we're missing is people like Mr Van Buren, with his thinking and writing skills to bring all of the important facts together on one page with just the right title. I can't do it, or I would have, but I see people with his skill not hitting the high note and I just wish he or someone else of his caliber would!
And we do have the facts. The Internet is so vast, and growing, that it defies description. With practice, clear thinking and a mission, it's possible to navigate through this ocean of knowledge to find islands of data relevant to a particular subject. We all have the capability to study any particular subject and learn more about it then mankind ever had. Throughout history people were educated in ways that are quaint when compared to what's available to a person connected to the Internet. We're talking orders of magnitude and a need for words that don't come easily to mind. Here in the space of this post, I've included links to some very important facts. Don't believe them? Keep an open mind and do more searching. If you don't believe the neocons even exist, do some googling. Try 'neocon videos' if you don't like to read, some people have put the time and effort into creating videos that you can watch in your leisure. And you can always turn to books.
Jung's brilliant analysis of the opposites in human nature explains how and why forces such as good and evil exist. I have no doubt he himself was inclined to the good, but I think even he left it to poets and philosophers to describe how and why good must prevail. We need someone now, a Kennedy type, to lead, and we need it now. The forces of good are being stricken down around around us on a daily basis. Not a day goes by without another attack on good people. Be it a new security clampdown, more economic woes, more war, more enemies, more killing, more distrust, more lies, etc. Because they control our information supply they get to set the frame of reference, telling us what's important and what's not. Look at all the ink about Iran for just one example of how it works.
And all the while those with the power have tools and weapons that grow bigger by the day.
God help us.
Bill
Somehow, despite the fact that this is a very well written article by a very knowledgeable person, it falls short of nailing his thesis. He should talk with Phil Donahue and take a look at the Lobby.
He should find a way to summarize what Nick Turse describes, and I stand witness to.
And Bradley Manning case going on now exemplifies how easily it is for evil to beat the shit out of good.
And maybe the title should include the word Justice. Good ol' Justice. What happened to it? Justice was as American as apple pie when I grew up. Now its a word nobody even uses. The travesty of justice that was Bush, Cheney and the neocons invasion of the middle east, in a nutshell, destroyed and obliterated this country's notion of justice - so much so that nobody talks about it anymore. As recently as Nixon we thought we were taught a lesson in how justice will in the end prevail. Was it really another charade, and Nixon's removal from office was not really an eruption of justice after all, just the sword of Brutus?
We have the facts now. The story of Building 7 is by itself a vein of golden information Read all about it. Combine this with the story of the "dancing Israeli's" and it becomes a fact that some people knew of the attack in advance. Is there more evil to be uncovered there?
Combine these facts, put them together, and what do you see? What I see is a force of evil pushing aside my notion of good. I see justice trampled more rapidly in this generation then all preceding. I see tools and weapons with incredible power in the hands of evil people.
The biggest tool the force of good has going for it is the facts. We're sitting today on a veritable mountain of facts that support the argument against evil. What we're missing is people like Mr Van Buren, with his thinking and writing skills to bring all of the important facts together on one page with just the right title. I can't do it, or I would have, but I see people with his skill not hitting the high note and I just wish he or someone else of his caliber would!
And we do have the facts. The Internet is so vast, and growing, that it defies description. With practice, clear thinking and a mission, it's possible to navigate through this ocean of knowledge to find islands of data relevant to a particular subject. We all have the capability to study any particular subject and learn more about it then mankind ever had. Throughout history people were educated in ways that are quaint when compared to what's available to a person connected to the Internet. We're talking orders of magnitude and a need for words that don't come easily to mind. Here in the space of this post, I've included links to some very important facts. Don't believe them? Keep an open mind and do more searching. If you don't believe the neocons even exist, do some googling. Try 'neocon videos' if you don't like to read, some people have put the time and effort into creating videos that you can watch in your leisure. And you can always turn to books.
Jung's brilliant analysis of the opposites in human nature explains how and why forces such as good and evil exist. I have no doubt he himself was inclined to the good, but I think even he left it to poets and philosophers to describe how and why good must prevail. We need someone now, a Kennedy type, to lead, and we need it now. The forces of good are being stricken down around around us on a daily basis. Not a day goes by without another attack on good people. Be it a new security clampdown, more economic woes, more war, more enemies, more killing, more distrust, more lies, etc. Because they control our information supply they get to set the frame of reference, telling us what's important and what's not. Look at all the ink about Iran for just one example of how it works.
And all the while those with the power have tools and weapons that grow bigger by the day.
God help us.
Bill
Monday, March 4, 2013
Bradley Manning: The Face of Heroism
Bradley Manning: The Face of Heroism By Glenn Greenwald
I hope you're following this trial. As important (and a true hero) that Bradley Manning is, what's really on trial here is transparency in government and the fate of people who decide to be whistle blowers when confronted with the situation Bradley Manning discovered he was in.
You might want to recall Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, because that event was remarkably similar to this, yet Ellsberg was treated as a hero in his day and never brought to trial for basically the same reason Bradley Manning is on trial today. Why is this? For some insight, click here. You can also google "ellsberg manning" for much, much more on this subject.
Aside: we should be so appreciative for the Internet! Let's use it to put the pieces together and sort out the terrible situation we're in, the lousy road we're on, and how we're going to solve these problems. I truly believe the heart of the solution is to update our election system with modern capabilities. As a long time computer systems person I can see how it should work, but I would love nothing more than to be bested by an even better solution.
Update: Please see Glenn Greenwald: Why the Obama Administration's Persecution of Bradley Manning Should Terrify Us All By Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald
Bill
"In December, 2011, I wrote an Op-Ed in the Guardian arguing that if Bradley Manning did what he is accused of doing, then he is a consummate hero, and deserves a medal and our collective gratitude, not decades in prison"
I hope you're following this trial. As important (and a true hero) that Bradley Manning is, what's really on trial here is transparency in government and the fate of people who decide to be whistle blowers when confronted with the situation Bradley Manning discovered he was in.
You might want to recall Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, because that event was remarkably similar to this, yet Ellsberg was treated as a hero in his day and never brought to trial for basically the same reason Bradley Manning is on trial today. Why is this? For some insight, click here. You can also google "ellsberg manning" for much, much more on this subject.
Aside: we should be so appreciative for the Internet! Let's use it to put the pieces together and sort out the terrible situation we're in, the lousy road we're on, and how we're going to solve these problems. I truly believe the heart of the solution is to update our election system with modern capabilities. As a long time computer systems person I can see how it should work, but I would love nothing more than to be bested by an even better solution.
Update: Please see Glenn Greenwald: Why the Obama Administration's Persecution of Bradley Manning Should Terrify Us All By Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald
Bill