As King said in his speech on Vietnam, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
We have arrived. We are spiritually dead and more self-righteous than ever. Our sense of justice so thoroughly perverted it is hard to see a way forward. The remnant of lovers of justice seems minuscule, and yet love cannot die. The light of love burns on.
Thank You, TomG, for sharing that. Profound words, indeed.
But ~ given the state of this Nation and Planet today ~ is "love," by itself, enough of a Candle in The Darkness to actually, really make a difference?
Well, JG, all I know is that with without it we get leaders with no vision and an agenda of selling hate and fear. We cannot kill our way to peace. Its only root is love--and applied one life at a time with all the courage and fortitude possible.
Years ago when pondering my peaceable grandparents compared to the division these days, I ran across Edwin Muir's poem (too long to post here), "The Good Town." Profound and powerful. If you are not familiar with it, it can be found online.
Of course, the "original sins" of the nation weren't applied only to the indigenous. For ten thousand years, bison roamed the grass from Alaska to the Gulf getting up to sixty-million—grass all intact. It took the government improvement program a few decades to get the number down to 541 and, after that, another 50 years to bring in the dust bowl—sins we have not fully learned from to this day.
The extreme militarism and support for the war mongering candidates is all driven by the garbage that passes for news in the US. The Corporate-Owned-News acts as the megaphone for billionaire owners, who are also the donor class that puts the war mongers into office. As long as the Blue Team and Red Team fans watch their CON outlets (like Fox for the Red Team, and MSNBC for the Blue Team) we will have a divided, dysfunctional nation. Red Team and Blue Team fans are unbelievably manipulable, and anything that comes through the CON becomes instantaneous fact. So one minute Kamala is nobody, the next minute she is the Blue Team savior. I have found that people who watch the CON garbage on TV seem totally addicted to it, and couldn't stop watching even if they wanted to (which they don't).
Each year GAO looks at military readiness achieved against budgeted program. GAO-23-106673, Fig 2 shows US tactical/fighter aircraft almost always do not achieve budgeted readiness, and F-35 is coming as leader in failed availability! The report shows other areas as well.
USS Eisenhower returned from 9 months "fighting the Red Sea [area denial] war", flew 17000 sorties mostly of those hard to fix fighters and came home with a new headline: first female to shoot down a drone!
Lots of bang bang from expensive, unreliable old fighters, but no noticeable effect.
More money! Or spending ourselves into disarmament.
The whole system is based on "weapons systems acquisition" - not operational readiness, training, or any of the seemingly trivial things that go on after the money is spent on buying too many of what's not needed or inadequate. Congress deserves a large measure of the blame - but the services themselves are not passive in this. Becoming a program manager for a prestige weapons system can be one path to stars on collars.
I observed: no spec is to be fully tested, and no notice of change to loosen specs will be disapproved. All contract changes are new work, and no increase in price is rejected. No failed test is statistically significant!
Happily none of my kids are near the U.S. military.
F-35 cannot meet its sustainment requirements, it will be with F-16 in GAO annual reports
It's unbelievably sad that we are going to continue to spend billions of dollars killing innocent people in foreign lands who have no interest in harming us, yet we call it"defense".
I wonder why none of the groups that are opposed to this aren't asking US citizens to sign a petition that states that they are for cutting the military budget in half. I wonder why all these liberal organizations don't get together and work together to put that petition out. Why can't they work together on this particular project, and continue to work separately on their other individual projects? If Save the Children, ACLU, Green Peace, Code Pink, World Wildlife fund , Doctors Without Borders and multiple other organizations could join together for this one petition, I think it would produce a landslide of signers who are opposed to having a military that constantly goes to war for no reason except to make weapon manufacturers rich.
If such a petition was made properly public and was heavily publicized, maybe it would finally galvanize the public to the point that they would demand Congress to finally pass a bill limiting the amount of money the Pentagon and CIA and other warrior groups get. But each group jealously guards its own bailiwick and apparently doesn't even think of joining up with others to help the citizens to inform the military that we are fed up with their war games and their plans to destroy the world and we need them to stop.
We could call it the MICCIMATT Petition and all the major helping groups could join in - there are a vast number of them; I know, because I get pleas for money in the mail from them and from my email as well. These groups could be the forerunner of a new inclusive political party that is more focused on helping this country become a real democracy rather than be like the Dem and Repub. parties, that are focused on telling other governments in many other countries what to do, and attacking them if they don't obey. I wouldn't take too many groups that are working together on this petition to start this, and they could grow. It could be a bit like BRICKS political organization in that it started with 5 countries and now many more are thinking of joining. So if even only 4 or 5 helping groups get together as a start with a majorly publicized petition against the huge cost of our military, it could grow in time and maybe they could think of some other petitions that are needed to get our country back to sanity.
Thank You, ranney, for sharing that Thought-Provoker.
But let me ask You a question or three: How many signatures do You think it would take to get America’s Ruling Political Class to take notice, and actually, really DO something in response to the Petition?
Also, do You think that a Petition alone would be enough to force that RPC to act? If not, what else needs to happen?
And would it be enough to, as You put it, “MAYBE...finally galvanize the public to the point that they would demand Congress to finally pass a bill limiting the amount of money the Pentagon and CIA and other warrior groups get” ? If not, what else needs to happen to make THAT happen?
Like i said: Thank You. It has provoked a lot of thoughts in me.
Also, and speaking of Petitions: Have You seen World Beyond War’s DECLARATION OF PEACE?
“I understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.”
jg , in answer to you first question, I believe if even 5 or 6 major helping organizations like Dr.s Without Borders or the ACLU joined together on a single project they would get many millions of people to sign a petition stating clearly in some fashion that our government needs to stop spending billions of tax money for war when clearly that money could be spent on productive projects in this country and around the world. Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech about our continuing use of tax money for killing is a perfect explanation of how we are destroying ourselves as well as much of the rest of the world with this focus on making war everywhere. I don't know anyone who is happy with the amount of money we give our military. How many people do you know who think a trillion dollars is a nice round figure for our military? I would venture to say that very few people in the US are happy with this current arrangement, that's why I suggest the organizations like World Beyond War (thanks for mentioning that) join with other groups to point out that environment, medicine, agriculture, wildlife, science and frankly everything else that we find useful and good is continually denigrated and destroyed by our focus on making and using weapons that kill. I think getting helping agencies of all kind to work together would help the people in congress realize that war and preparing for war is not what the citizens want. It may be what the oligarchs want, but if the citizens who vote for them want an end to making war instead of it being the governmental function most money goes to, maybe we will elect people who are willing to vote for peace. A well thought out petition backed by well known trusted organizations could be a good place to start.
Thank You, ranney, for clarifying that. Have You sent emails to all the organizations You've cited suggesting they join each other and generate that Petition? It would be interesting to see how they responded.
I just watched the most disgraceful stream of lies that came out of that War Criminal Netanyahu's mouth.
The Trump Congress of Republican lemmings always preferring lies being Truth adverse, stood and applauded every one! Shameful! They are all COMPLICIT in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Trump and Netanyahu own the US Congressional Republican lemmings, and I'm not sure who plays the dominant role?
Yep. And you close with no suggestions whatever. No calls for action. Just defeatist acceptance.
And you have a picture of all those sheeple wanting 'Kamala' which is a picture of the problem: not that they want Kamala but that they want 'a leader' to help them.
In America, this 'bastion of democracy' the people should help the people. Not some saviour 'leader'.
That's despotism or even monarchy or a dictatorship.
We see they are apparently hard wired for it.
There are their peers on the 'other side' holding banners for Trump.
They might as well hold banners for Audi Murphy, or Superman, or Jesus Christ and I'm sure that in their hearts many of them do.
They appear to be born slaves. 'Sheeple' is a kind word.
But their clerisy is little different.
Well I think they need directing towards the fact that they are supposed to govern, to have a voice adn to exercise it and remind them or let them know that now is the first time in history when technology will allow it to happen and in a way that's totally within the power of the people and needs no help nor permission from government.
no mate, I'm not audi murphy. We're ALL here to save us from defeatism. You're here to save us from defeatism (and/or whatever you call it when you sit around waiting for superman: 'messianism' ?
I'd rather call it 'hollywoodism', infantile hollywoodism. Eating too much icecream while watching hollywood fantasies throughout all the formative years kinda screws people's brains I think.
They're all suffering from ice cream hollywoodism probably exacerbated by over eating.
The cure is possibly a walk through a battlefield while living on a diet of cold cabbage.
“And so Bang! Bang! You’re dead!” Last night I finished reading the chapter VIOLENCE, TORTURE, AND WAR CRIMES in Tim Bakken’s THE COST OF LOYALTY, 2020. The author details how the military sees itself as separate from the norms of society. The unique status of the military establishment is illustrated in how it handled human rights abuses since the Korean War. The only soldier ever convicted of a homicide since the 1950s was William Calley of My Lai infamy. He ultimately served five months of imprisonment and three years of home arrest. The chapter concludes “American soldiers’ behavior, from torture to intentional killing of civilians, is defended and protected by the highest authority in the land.” Considering this kind of exceptionalism, it shouldn’t surprise anybody that they receive an inordinate amount of the country’s financial resources. This is why the U.S. maintains 800 plus bases across the planet even in places where they are not wanted. “Let freedom ring” and similar “high” minded rhetorical phrases were always used as propaganda at home and abroad.
It is what it is... When enough people are bothered by it then maybe it will change! But.., don't hold your breath. Saganist I.O.W. we need to champion critical thinking, science thinking, encouraging debate, and avoiding blind acceptance of authority...
When up is down and down is up as it is in our world these days, as an old farm boy, I could only shake my head in disgust at a headline in the NYT (or maybe it was WaPo) that read, "Biden Shepherded Europe on Ukraine and NATO." Shepherded. To that I can only say we are damn cruel shepherds. I see no care for the sheep. And like unto it, I take umbrage at people calling Trump a pig. What have pigs ever done to them!? :-)
Does Anybody here on BV disagree with ANYTHING Ms Johnstone declares? ,,,
NETANYAHU'S SPEECH WAS AS AMERICAN AS IT GETS by Caitlin Johnstone 25 Jul 24
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, yet simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.
The Israeli prime minister RECEIVED NO FEWER THAN 58 STANDING OVATIONS while speaking before both houses of Congress and spewing the most despicable lies you could possibly imagine in his conspicuously American accent. DEPENDING ON HOW POLITICALLY AWARE YOU ARE, THIS SPECTACLE COULD BE PERCEIVED AS EITHER DEEPLY UN-AMERICAN, OR AS AMERICAN AS IT GETS.
Netanyahu repeated evidence-free atrocity propaganda about what happened on October 7, falsely asserting that Hamas “burned babies alive” and killed two babies in an attic. He falsely claimed that Hamas “butchered 1,200 people”, pretending it’s not a well-established fact that many of the 1,139 Israeli deaths that day came from both indiscriminate IDF fire and deliberate targeting in implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
He made the completely baseless CLAIM THAT IRAN MAY BE PAYING THE ANTI-GENOCIDE DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE THE CAPITOL BUILDING during his speech, saying, “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
Netanyahu spent minutes ranting and raving about protests in America against his government’s atrocities in Gaza, during which he received a standing ovation from Congress that went on for nearly a minute.
He ACCUSED THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT OF “ANTISEMITISM” AND “BLOOD LIBEL” for saying that Israel deliberately targets civilians, as though this hasn’t been conclusively established by mountains of evidence like the IDF’s Lavender AI system and statements from doctors describing what can only be deliberate sniper executions of children in Gaza.
He repeated Israel’s evidence-free claim that the only reason people are starving in Gaza is because Hamas is “stealing” all of the aid Israel allows in for itself.
Netanyahu went out of his way to frame ISRAEL’S PLIGHT AS CIVILIZED PEOPLE AGAINST UNCIVILIZED BARBARIANS, which only works if you harbor a supremely racist worldview. He kept repeating the word “civilization”, contrasting this with the “barbarism” of Hamas and its supporters, CALLING ISRAEL’S US-BACKED MILITARY VIOLENCE “A CLASH BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION” AND SAYING “ISRAEL FIGHTS ON THE FRONTLINE OF CIVILIZATION”.
He made these appeals to the racism that westerners harbor toward middle easterners in the same speech wherein he decried the “outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal”.
Netanyahu said Israel “must retain overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, an open admission of plans for indefinite military occupation.
This deluge of lies and racist invective received dozens and dozens of standing ovations. THE SAME POLITICAL CLASS THAT’S SPENT THE LAST EIGHT YEARS SHRIEKING ABOUT THE THREAT OF MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION AND FOREIGN PROPAGANDA JUST NORMALIZED AND APPLAUDED A FOREIGN GENOCIDAL WAR CRIMINAL AS HE STOOD BEFORE CONGRESS TELLING LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE.
YOU COULDN’T ASK FOR A BETTER EXAMPLE OF EVERYTHING WASHINGTON STANDS FOR THAN THIS. Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again is A MUCH BETTER REPRESENTATION OF WHAT THE US GOVERNMENT IS ABOUT THAN ANYTHING YOU’LL SEE DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE FROM NOW UNTIL NOVEMBER.
This is everything Israel is, and this is everything the US empire is. They’re showing you who they are. BELIEVE THEM.
And if today IS Your Birthday, then Happy Birthday, and delay any UnBirthday celebrations until tomorrow.
Again: A Very Merry UnBirthday to YOU.... . ~ jeff
ps: Please share this with anybody and everybody You think could use a little cheer, if not some honest silliness. Especially if it’s Their UnBirthday, as well. And even if it's not. Thankee.
As King said in his speech on Vietnam, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
We have arrived. We are spiritually dead and more self-righteous than ever. Our sense of justice so thoroughly perverted it is hard to see a way forward. The remnant of lovers of justice seems minuscule, and yet love cannot die. The light of love burns on.
Thank You, TomG, for sharing that. Profound words, indeed.
But ~ given the state of this Nation and Planet today ~ is "love," by itself, enough of a Candle in The Darkness to actually, really make a difference?
Or is there something more required?
Well, JG, all I know is that with without it we get leaders with no vision and an agenda of selling hate and fear. We cannot kill our way to peace. Its only root is love--and applied one life at a time with all the courage and fortitude possible.
i agree, But is "love" all that is required to prevent that? Or, again, is something more required?
And maybe we need to start by defining exactly what we mean by "love."
"Love" -- so easy to define! But I think we could start with generosity. Helping instead of hurting.
Years ago when pondering my peaceable grandparents compared to the division these days, I ran across Edwin Muir's poem (too long to post here), "The Good Town." Profound and powerful. If you are not familiar with it, it can be found online.
Thank You, TomG, for sharing that. It is well, well worth the read and ponder:
https://theundercroft.blogspot.com/2006/11/good-town.html
Just ask the indigenous peoples of America how the "bells of freedom" rang for them.
Of course, the "original sins" of the nation weren't applied only to the indigenous. For ten thousand years, bison roamed the grass from Alaska to the Gulf getting up to sixty-million—grass all intact. It took the government improvement program a few decades to get the number down to 541 and, after that, another 50 years to bring in the dust bowl—sins we have not fully learned from to this day.
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Also, "First they came for..., then they came for you."
The extreme militarism and support for the war mongering candidates is all driven by the garbage that passes for news in the US. The Corporate-Owned-News acts as the megaphone for billionaire owners, who are also the donor class that puts the war mongers into office. As long as the Blue Team and Red Team fans watch their CON outlets (like Fox for the Red Team, and MSNBC for the Blue Team) we will have a divided, dysfunctional nation. Red Team and Blue Team fans are unbelievably manipulable, and anything that comes through the CON becomes instantaneous fact. So one minute Kamala is nobody, the next minute she is the Blue Team savior. I have found that people who watch the CON garbage on TV seem totally addicted to it, and couldn't stop watching even if they wanted to (which they don't).
A lot of what US military owns is not "ready".
Each year GAO looks at military readiness achieved against budgeted program. GAO-23-106673, Fig 2 shows US tactical/fighter aircraft almost always do not achieve budgeted readiness, and F-35 is coming as leader in failed availability! The report shows other areas as well.
USS Eisenhower returned from 9 months "fighting the Red Sea [area denial] war", flew 17000 sorties mostly of those hard to fix fighters and came home with a new headline: first female to shoot down a drone!
Lots of bang bang from expensive, unreliable old fighters, but no noticeable effect.
More money! Or spending ourselves into disarmament.
The whole system is based on "weapons systems acquisition" - not operational readiness, training, or any of the seemingly trivial things that go on after the money is spent on buying too many of what's not needed or inadequate. Congress deserves a large measure of the blame - but the services themselves are not passive in this. Becoming a program manager for a prestige weapons system can be one path to stars on collars.
Yes, absolutely.
I was a tech manager for an MDAP or two!
I observed: no spec is to be fully tested, and no notice of change to loosen specs will be disapproved. All contract changes are new work, and no increase in price is rejected. No failed test is statistically significant!
Happily none of my kids are near the U.S. military.
F-35 cannot meet its sustainment requirements, it will be with F-16 in GAO annual reports
It's unbelievably sad that we are going to continue to spend billions of dollars killing innocent people in foreign lands who have no interest in harming us, yet we call it"defense".
I wonder why none of the groups that are opposed to this aren't asking US citizens to sign a petition that states that they are for cutting the military budget in half. I wonder why all these liberal organizations don't get together and work together to put that petition out. Why can't they work together on this particular project, and continue to work separately on their other individual projects? If Save the Children, ACLU, Green Peace, Code Pink, World Wildlife fund , Doctors Without Borders and multiple other organizations could join together for this one petition, I think it would produce a landslide of signers who are opposed to having a military that constantly goes to war for no reason except to make weapon manufacturers rich.
If such a petition was made properly public and was heavily publicized, maybe it would finally galvanize the public to the point that they would demand Congress to finally pass a bill limiting the amount of money the Pentagon and CIA and other warrior groups get. But each group jealously guards its own bailiwick and apparently doesn't even think of joining up with others to help the citizens to inform the military that we are fed up with their war games and their plans to destroy the world and we need them to stop.
We could call it the MICCIMATT Petition and all the major helping groups could join in - there are a vast number of them; I know, because I get pleas for money in the mail from them and from my email as well. These groups could be the forerunner of a new inclusive political party that is more focused on helping this country become a real democracy rather than be like the Dem and Repub. parties, that are focused on telling other governments in many other countries what to do, and attacking them if they don't obey. I wouldn't take too many groups that are working together on this petition to start this, and they could grow. It could be a bit like BRICKS political organization in that it started with 5 countries and now many more are thinking of joining. So if even only 4 or 5 helping groups get together as a start with a majorly publicized petition against the huge cost of our military, it could grow in time and maybe they could think of some other petitions that are needed to get our country back to sanity.
Thank You, ranney, for sharing that Thought-Provoker.
But let me ask You a question or three: How many signatures do You think it would take to get America’s Ruling Political Class to take notice, and actually, really DO something in response to the Petition?
Also, do You think that a Petition alone would be enough to force that RPC to act? If not, what else needs to happen?
And would it be enough to, as You put it, “MAYBE...finally galvanize the public to the point that they would demand Congress to finally pass a bill limiting the amount of money the Pentagon and CIA and other warrior groups get” ? If not, what else needs to happen to make THAT happen?
Like i said: Thank You. It has provoked a lot of thoughts in me.
Also, and speaking of Petitions: Have You seen World Beyond War’s DECLARATION OF PEACE?
“I understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.”
To sign, go to https://worldbeyondwar.org/individual/ , and learn what else World Beyond War is doing. Have a Great day. ~ jeff
jg , in answer to you first question, I believe if even 5 or 6 major helping organizations like Dr.s Without Borders or the ACLU joined together on a single project they would get many millions of people to sign a petition stating clearly in some fashion that our government needs to stop spending billions of tax money for war when clearly that money could be spent on productive projects in this country and around the world. Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech about our continuing use of tax money for killing is a perfect explanation of how we are destroying ourselves as well as much of the rest of the world with this focus on making war everywhere. I don't know anyone who is happy with the amount of money we give our military. How many people do you know who think a trillion dollars is a nice round figure for our military? I would venture to say that very few people in the US are happy with this current arrangement, that's why I suggest the organizations like World Beyond War (thanks for mentioning that) join with other groups to point out that environment, medicine, agriculture, wildlife, science and frankly everything else that we find useful and good is continually denigrated and destroyed by our focus on making and using weapons that kill. I think getting helping agencies of all kind to work together would help the people in congress realize that war and preparing for war is not what the citizens want. It may be what the oligarchs want, but if the citizens who vote for them want an end to making war instead of it being the governmental function most money goes to, maybe we will elect people who are willing to vote for peace. A well thought out petition backed by well known trusted organizations could be a good place to start.
Thank You, ranney, for clarifying that. Have You sent emails to all the organizations You've cited suggesting they join each other and generate that Petition? It would be interesting to see how they responded.
I just watched the most disgraceful stream of lies that came out of that War Criminal Netanyahu's mouth.
The Trump Congress of Republican lemmings always preferring lies being Truth adverse, stood and applauded every one! Shameful! They are all COMPLICIT in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Trump and Netanyahu own the US Congressional Republican lemmings, and I'm not sure who plays the dominant role?
Tricky Netanyahu: I Deceived the US to Destroy Oslo Accords. English Subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvqCWvi-nFo
Yep. And you close with no suggestions whatever. No calls for action. Just defeatist acceptance.
And you have a picture of all those sheeple wanting 'Kamala' which is a picture of the problem: not that they want Kamala but that they want 'a leader' to help them.
In America, this 'bastion of democracy' the people should help the people. Not some saviour 'leader'.
That's despotism or even monarchy or a dictatorship.
We see they are apparently hard wired for it.
There are their peers on the 'other side' holding banners for Trump.
They might as well hold banners for Audi Murphy, or Superman, or Jesus Christ and I'm sure that in their hearts many of them do.
They appear to be born slaves. 'Sheeple' is a kind word.
But their clerisy is little different.
Well I think they need directing towards the fact that they are supposed to govern, to have a voice adn to exercise it and remind them or let them know that now is the first time in history when technology will allow it to happen and in a way that's totally within the power of the people and needs no help nor permission from government.
https://abrogard.com/blog/2023/12/25/dont-write-to-congress/
don't say it can't be done. Here's part of it being done:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_voting_system
That's why you're here: to rescue us from defeatism.
no mate, I'm not audi murphy. We're ALL here to save us from defeatism. You're here to save us from defeatism (and/or whatever you call it when you sit around waiting for superman: 'messianism' ?
I'd rather call it 'hollywoodism', infantile hollywoodism. Eating too much icecream while watching hollywood fantasies throughout all the formative years kinda screws people's brains I think.
They're all suffering from ice cream hollywoodism probably exacerbated by over eating.
The cure is possibly a walk through a battlefield while living on a diet of cold cabbage.
“And so Bang! Bang! You’re dead!” Last night I finished reading the chapter VIOLENCE, TORTURE, AND WAR CRIMES in Tim Bakken’s THE COST OF LOYALTY, 2020. The author details how the military sees itself as separate from the norms of society. The unique status of the military establishment is illustrated in how it handled human rights abuses since the Korean War. The only soldier ever convicted of a homicide since the 1950s was William Calley of My Lai infamy. He ultimately served five months of imprisonment and three years of home arrest. The chapter concludes “American soldiers’ behavior, from torture to intentional killing of civilians, is defended and protected by the highest authority in the land.” Considering this kind of exceptionalism, it shouldn’t surprise anybody that they receive an inordinate amount of the country’s financial resources. This is why the U.S. maintains 800 plus bases across the planet even in places where they are not wanted. “Let freedom ring” and similar “high” minded rhetorical phrases were always used as propaganda at home and abroad.
I find myself looking to see if Biden has stepped down as president, every time I hear Biden "stepped down".
We have a huge white elephant in the room here that anybody who follows independent media sees clearly...
... But anyone who follows Democrat media is utterly blind to...
... spending-TRILLION-plus each-year every year on military... how-many multiples-of-billions are-profits
It is what it is... When enough people are bothered by it then maybe it will change! But.., don't hold your breath. Saganist I.O.W. we need to champion critical thinking, science thinking, encouraging debate, and avoiding blind acceptance of authority...
Holly gosh gee whiz. Those are all the things that the government has beat out of it's citizens. Must be a coincidence.
So now substack has removed the edit function ? Holly should be golly. Thanks to my dumb phone.
When up is down and down is up as it is in our world these days, as an old farm boy, I could only shake my head in disgust at a headline in the NYT (or maybe it was WaPo) that read, "Biden Shepherded Europe on Ukraine and NATO." Shepherded. To that I can only say we are damn cruel shepherds. I see no care for the sheep. And like unto it, I take umbrage at people calling Trump a pig. What have pigs ever done to them!? :-)
Does Anybody here on BV disagree with ANYTHING Ms Johnstone declares? ,,,
NETANYAHU'S SPEECH WAS AS AMERICAN AS IT GETS by Caitlin Johnstone 25 Jul 24
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, yet simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.
The Israeli prime minister RECEIVED NO FEWER THAN 58 STANDING OVATIONS while speaking before both houses of Congress and spewing the most despicable lies you could possibly imagine in his conspicuously American accent. DEPENDING ON HOW POLITICALLY AWARE YOU ARE, THIS SPECTACLE COULD BE PERCEIVED AS EITHER DEEPLY UN-AMERICAN, OR AS AMERICAN AS IT GETS.
Netanyahu repeated evidence-free atrocity propaganda about what happened on October 7, falsely asserting that Hamas “burned babies alive” and killed two babies in an attic. He falsely claimed that Hamas “butchered 1,200 people”, pretending it’s not a well-established fact that many of the 1,139 Israeli deaths that day came from both indiscriminate IDF fire and deliberate targeting in implementation of the Hannibal Directive.
He made the completely baseless CLAIM THAT IRAN MAY BE PAYING THE ANTI-GENOCIDE DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE THE CAPITOL BUILDING during his speech, saying, “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”
Netanyahu spent minutes ranting and raving about protests in America against his government’s atrocities in Gaza, during which he received a standing ovation from Congress that went on for nearly a minute.
He ACCUSED THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT OF “ANTISEMITISM” AND “BLOOD LIBEL” for saying that Israel deliberately targets civilians, as though this hasn’t been conclusively established by mountains of evidence like the IDF’s Lavender AI system and statements from doctors describing what can only be deliberate sniper executions of children in Gaza.
He repeated Israel’s evidence-free claim that the only reason people are starving in Gaza is because Hamas is “stealing” all of the aid Israel allows in for itself.
Netanyahu went out of his way to frame ISRAEL’S PLIGHT AS CIVILIZED PEOPLE AGAINST UNCIVILIZED BARBARIANS, which only works if you harbor a supremely racist worldview. He kept repeating the word “civilization”, contrasting this with the “barbarism” of Hamas and its supporters, CALLING ISRAEL’S US-BACKED MILITARY VIOLENCE “A CLASH BETWEEN BARBARISM AND CIVILIZATION” AND SAYING “ISRAEL FIGHTS ON THE FRONTLINE OF CIVILIZATION”.
He made these appeals to the racism that westerners harbor toward middle easterners in the same speech wherein he decried the “outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal”.
Netanyahu said Israel “must retain overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, an open admission of plans for indefinite military occupation.
This deluge of lies and racist invective received dozens and dozens of standing ovations. THE SAME POLITICAL CLASS THAT’S SPENT THE LAST EIGHT YEARS SHRIEKING ABOUT THE THREAT OF MISINFORMATION, DISINFORMATION AND FOREIGN PROPAGANDA JUST NORMALIZED AND APPLAUDED A FOREIGN GENOCIDAL WAR CRIMINAL AS HE STOOD BEFORE CONGRESS TELLING LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIE.
YOU COULDN’T ASK FOR A BETTER EXAMPLE OF EVERYTHING WASHINGTON STANDS FOR THAN THIS. Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again is A MUCH BETTER REPRESENTATION OF WHAT THE US GOVERNMENT IS ABOUT THAN ANYTHING YOU’LL SEE DURING THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE FROM NOW UNTIL NOVEMBER.
This is everything Israel is, and this is everything the US empire is. They’re showing you who they are. BELIEVE THEM.
Source: https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/netanyahus-speech-was-as-american ; EMPHASES added.
I always agree with Caitlin, she is a master at cutting through the crap.
She is among the very, Very Best at doing that, for sure.
Exactly right, and right on! Couldn't have said it better; thank you Bill!
On the occasion of my 78th birthday, may i send the following Wish to Y’All...:
If You are like the overwhelmingly vast number of people on this Planet unlike me, today is Not Your Birthday.
Which makes it Your UnBirthday. Of which there are 364 in every year [365 in Leap Years].
And so, here’s a Very Merry UnBirthday wish for You...: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KDwE6MjfmQ.
And if today IS Your Birthday, then Happy Birthday, and delay any UnBirthday celebrations until tomorrow.
Again: A Very Merry UnBirthday to YOU.... . ~ jeff
ps: Please share this with anybody and everybody You think could use a little cheer, if not some honest silliness. Especially if it’s Their UnBirthday, as well. And even if it's not. Thankee.
DeMOCKracy.ink’s Mark Taylor includes a photograph of the projected winner of America’s Presidential Election in November in his 22 July 24 piece, NOW YOU CAN TRUST US! RIGHT?...RIGHT? : https://substack.com/redirect/cde33c9c-973e-4834-a808-1f0cdda40c61?j=eyJ1IjoiZDU3Y2gifQ.pZ44B6lpMxsjblA3PfZCAzwrkm40GSclAv5pvR728-o
The full article is at https://mark192.substack.com/p/cartoon-there-now-you-can-trust-us .
Thought You might like it.