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I think it would be more accurate to say that "The Military-Industrial Complex Ate Our Government." As you explain, this rip-off goes well beyond the Pentagon. We are forever indebted to Eisenhower for warning us of the danger of the MIC almost 70 years ago, even if no one in a position of power in DC has bothered to heed the warning ever since. On the contrary, the military-industrial complex of today makes the one that existed back in the 1950s during Eisenhower's time look rather harmless in comparison. It is now an all-consuming, multi-headed behemoth that is sucking the lifeblood out of this country.

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author

Yes, more accurate, Charlie, but not as sharp of a title. :-)

Perhaps even more accurate: The military-industrial complex IS our government.

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founding

The MICC [throw in "Congressional" after "Military-Industrial"] is PART of our government, Bill.

The other part is the Secrecy-Security-Surveillance-Censorship-Propaganda Panopticon, or S3CP2.

And rounding it out and making it all possible ~ at least so far ~ is the Big Bank-Federal Reserve system of Wealth production and Power distribution.

Then in supporting roles are Academia and the Entertainment/Infotainment industries.

Plus ~ in markedly growing significance recently ~ certain Religious factions and their factionization of their own Core Teachings.

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I take the top figure on that graph as a given, Bill, and don't expect any change absent a complete upending of how things are done in this country (with repeal of Citizens United as a foundational step). The figure simply becomes more egregious every budget cycle.

But to me, what really tells the tale are the bottom three numbers on the graph. In other words, dumbing-down across the board; lack of funding for scientific research; lack of support for the DoJ; paring down of IRS resources; lack of funding for labor, housing, healthcare, and other services; and so on. That is, what we're seeing is a two-pronged attack on the country's wherewithal. Dumping billions into the MIC while depriving ordinary citizens of basic needs and services. The inequality is breath-taking. And of course, the GOP is hoping to gut Social Security and Medicaid in the meantime. Couple that with the ongoing (under several Presidents) giving away of Medicare to private insurers, and we little guys will be lucky to get crumbs by the time another decade---or less---has passed.

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The Blob ate everything, and it is still hungry. Instead of fixing things and improving life for Americans, The Blob has instead decided that using our tax dollars to kill and destroy overseas is a better option. What do you expect from a government controlled by the ultra-wealthy? After the New Deal, the government controlled capital. Now, since the Reagan Revolution in the 1980s, capital controls the government (again, like it did in the 1920s).

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Mar 26Liked by Bill Astore

... where most of the money goes tells us clearly what kind of a country we are, and who is really in charge of things... we are a war-economy-country... war is good, it keeps us strong, so our 'leaders' keep telling us ... we need LOTS of new-different-better-leaders

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Matthew Hoh addressed the United Nations Security Council last Friday on nuclear weapons, Ukraine and Gaza. A video of his statement and a transcript are available at https://matthewhoh.substack.com/p/an-escalatory-game-for-fools-and .

And i’m curious: How many folks here at BV know of or remember an extended crisis in 1983 that brought America and Russia to the brink of nuclear war a couple of times? Mr Hoh refers to that and, given that i don’t remember or know of a near nuclear war back then, i did some Google Hunting and Gathering and found this: “The Near Nuclear War of 1983” at https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/the-near-nuclear-war-of-1983/ .

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Yes, I do remember it well as I was Stationed in the 321 Air Police Squadron @ Grand Forks A.F.B..., North Dakota Strategic Air Command before I separated in 1977, and my hackles went up when I heard about this Incident.

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founding

That had to have been an interesting time to be on a SAC base. Very Interesting.

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RemovedMar 25·edited Mar 26
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founding

Thanks for the link to the film, Ray. That was on my list of things to get done today.

Sounds like You had a very interesting time back then.

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It think it wise to view the State Department as the Board of Directors for national security. That security really extends to the entire globe when you consider that many of our adventures overseas are mainly to ensure uninterrupted global trade. That can mean supporting rebels so they are pre-occupied with national squabbles, ensuring the safety to expand US commerce in a developing nation, or interrupting trade among countries competing with the US or just proving to be annoying - like Russia. While that costs a lot to do, the payback for the US generally is usually $ignificant as heck. Thus, despite the Trillion-dollar expense, we are getting that back with interest as our global trade expands. Ca-ching.

The US could cut the DOD budget in half, but the impact would be noticed immediately in US GDP.

Thinking of DOD using Eisenhower's MIC stereotype makes national defense seem like an evil money-making scam. However, much of what the MIC manufactures is sold to foreign countries. Ca-ching!

Ukraine is one example. They are a huge grain exporter to developing nations, and, Russia's take over of Crimea has meant that they own the Black Sea which affects several large EU nations - esp. Romania and Bulgaria - and Greece to some extent. Turkey benefits too as it applies for EU membership. Of course with Erdogan in charge EU membership will be slow because he is a crook. Nevertheless NATO would prefer to have Turkey as a pal, so Erdogan flirts with Putin regularly for EU leverage. Once trade opens up in the Black Sea Russia-free - increased trade will trickle back into US coffers. Ca-ching.

Having survived 2 combat tours in Vietnam, I am not a fan of war, guns, or the military. My point is merely to point out that tarring the MIC has consequences for US economic dominance as well as national security. It is not so much that the Pentagon ate our government as it is that our country thrives by eating the MIC. I think we could save a lot of tax dollars by being more rational about weapons systems, budget management, etc. We piss away a lot of money on useless high tech like electronic auto pilots for Navy ships, aircraft like the F-35 - an elephant designed by committee, surface ships with more tech than their mission requires, etc. I argued for 3 decades that cheap little drones were an emerging threat. The US is just now realizing that thanks to the Ukraine war. Stuff like that is probably the best place to start reforming the MIC.

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I saw the other day that the Marine Corps has passed an audit, the first of the services to do so. A tiny ray of light for your Monday. : )

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author

I can see that. Marines run a tight ship.

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founding

The Future Of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger has just posted an article entitled “A Great Book on the U.S. Empire”:

An overview and endorsement USA: THE RUTHLESS EMPIRE by Daniele Ganser, a Swiss historian and founder and director of the Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research in Basel, Switzerland.

Excerpt:

“I cannot recommend this book too highly. It is an absolutely fantastic analysis of the U.S. killing machine that the U.S. government has become, especially after the federal government was converted to a national-security state consisting of the Pentagon, the vast military-industrial complex, an empire of domestic and foreign military bases, the CIA, and the NSA after World War II.

“Ganser pulls no punches. HE CORRECTLY POINTS OUT THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE. YES, GREATER THAN RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, AND OTHER NATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN CONVERTED INTO OFFICIAL ENEMIES, ADVERSARIES, OPPONENTS, OR RIVALS OF THE U.S. EMPIRE. He’s not alone. He observes that 24 percent of worldwide respondents to a survey stated the same thing.

“He reminds us of President Eisenhower’s famous warning in his Farewell Address of the extreme danger that the military-industrial complex poses to the American people. He also reminds us that that the U.S. government leads the world in military spending. He writes about the adverse consequences of U.S. military bases in foreign countries. He also writes about the CIA’s regime-change operations, such as the ones in Iran, Guatemala, Cuba, Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, and Chile. He details the U.S.-sponsored kidnapping and murder of Gen. Rene Schneider, the innocent commander of Chile’s armed forces. He points out that since 1945, the United States has bombed more countries than any other nation.

“Ganser also has a chapter on the national-security’s state’s assassination of President Kennedy, something that the U.S. mainstream press and mainstream historians have long been loathe to acknowledge. He correctly points out, ‘Important files on the assassination of President Kennedy are still under lock and key today, which prevents a full investigation into this unscrupulous crime.’”

Source: https://www.fff.org/2024/03/25/a-great-book-on-the-u-s-empire/ ; EMPHASIS added.

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founding

re What CHARLES KNIGHT noted earlier about the “cold war with China” turning hot, and the impact that will have on National Defense/Security budgets… :

Anybody who thinks that war with China sometime this year is not in the advanced planning stage needs to read and reflect upon this piece today from Reuters, US EYES CHANGE TO MILITARY COMMAND IN JAPAN AS CHINA THREAT LOOMS, SOURCES SAY:

TOKYO/WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will agree next month to tighter military cooperation, including talks on the biggest potential change to Washington's East Asia command structure in decades, two sources said.

Washington will consider appointing a four-star commander to oversee its forces in Japan as a counterpart to the head of a proposed Japanese Self Defense Forces (SDF) headquarters overseeing all of the country's military operations, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the plan.

"We are in discussion about how our planned joint command can strengthen cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Monday at a regular media briefing when asked about the reports… .

Full article: https://www.reuters.com/world/us-japan-plan-biggest-upgrade-security-pact-more-than-60-years-ft-reports-2024-03-24/ .

The Bottom Line, Bullet-Hits-The-Bone fact of the matter is that American Voters have never voted a “War-Time President” out of office. As it stands rights now, Biden will be able to run as a Two-War War-Time President with Ukraine and Palestine to his credit. And a War with China would make him a Three-War War-Timer.

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Today’s Reuters has several other articles related to the planning of WAR WITH CHINA:

~ The Philippines summoned China's envoy to protest against "aggressive actions" in the South China Sea, as Manila's defense minister dared Beijing to bolster its vast sovereignty claims by taking them to international arbitration, at:

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-defence-minister-dares-china-put-maritime-sovereignty-claim-2024-03-25/ .

And China had this to say about the Philippines [with the U.S. weighing in, as well]:

CHINA SAYS RELATIONS WITH PHILIPPINES AT 'CROSSROADS' AMID MARITIME INCIDENTS

MANILA, March 25 (Reuters) - China warned the Philippines on Monday to behave cautiously and seek dialogue, saying their relations were at a "crossroads" as new confrontations between their coastguards over maritime claims deepened tensions.

It was the second such warning, by the Chinese foreign ministry in three months as the two countries openly sparred over territorial claims in the Spratly Islands, a mostly uninhabited archipelago in the South China Sea… .

… Since taking power in 2022, [Philippines President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Romualdez] Marcos [Jr] has adopted a tough line against what he sees as Chinese hostility and rejected Chinese pressure to steer clear of maritime features it claims.

CHINA VIEWS WITH SUSPICION EFFORTS BY MARCOS TO DEEPEN ENGAGEMENT WITH DEFENCE TREATY ALLY THE UNITED STATES, INCLUDING INCREASING BASE ACCESS FOR U.S. TROOPS AND EXPANDING MILITARY EXERCISES TO INCLUDE JOINT AIR AND SEA PATROLS.

Washington has said it stands with the Philippines as it condemned the "dangerous actions" of China. JAPAN, THE UNITED KINGDOM, GERMANY, FRANCE, CANADA AND AUSTRALIA HAVE ALSO ISSUED STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT FOR THE PHILIPPINES.

"The U.S. is not a party to the South China Sea issue but repeatedly intervened, provoked the maritime issues between China and the Philippines," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a press conference on Monday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/philippines-defence-minister-dares-china-put-maritime-sovereignty-claim-2024-03-25/ ; EMPHASES added.

And then, one of America’s Strategic Colonies weighed in, as well:

~ Britain will give details of the cyber security threat it says is posed by China and may blame Beijing for a hack on its electoral watchdog, as worries about interference grow before an election expected later this year at:

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-deputy-pm-set-address-lawmakers-chinese-cyber-security-threat-2024-03-24/ .

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founding

The betting here is that there will be some sort of “Incident” [a “Tonkin Gulf Moment," for example] somewhere that will lead to open, but unofficially, formally declared War that pits China, North Korea, and Far Eastern Russia against the United States, Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, with Australia and New Zealand standing by in Ready Reserve.

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I read a person who looks at US GDP report each quarter and notes that pentagon is often over 55% of federal consumption/expenditures in most quarters.

That said irrespective of the waste and incompetence of the pentagon, every dollar they consume is better not spent or spent elsewhere.

As an aside the outlays for military pensions were removed from the pentagon's budget a couple of decades ago. The 'trust fund' for military retirement is about $1.2 trillion (Sep 2023 report of the audit of the federal debt), all those special treasuries created by congress with no cash! The OPM retirement trust is about a trillion dollars again mostly congress printed bonds, half of OPM retirees are from DoD.

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If let the construct of “cold war” with China 🇨🇳 develop further the Pentagon will soon have 75% of the discretionary budget.

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"Somebody exploded an H-Bomb Today but it wasn't anybody I knew. On the way Home I posted a Letter-- been quite a nice day" Ray Thomas, Moody Blues, Album: "On the Threshhold of a Dream" Released 1969- Song, Dear Diary

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author

Timothy Leary lives!

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Another perspective on the looming WAR WITH CHINA… :

THE BUOYANCY OF PSYCHOPATHS AND THE GENESIS OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR

by Fred Reed / Information Clearing House 25 Mar 24

ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT ASIAN WAR AGAINST CHINA, IN A ROUSING SPEECH BIDEN ASSURED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THAT THE WAR WAS NECESSARY BECAUSE CHINA WAS THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA AND DIDN’T HAVE AMERICAN VALUES. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL POINTED OUT THAT THE US HAD THE MOST ADVANCED, LETHAL, BEST TRAINED, HYPERGALACTIC AND INDOMITABLE MILITARY THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN AND THE FACT THAT IT COULD NOT DEFEAT ANNOYED GOAT HERDERS WITH RIFLES HAD NO BEARING ON THE MATTER SINCE THE CHINESE DIDN’T HAVE GOATS. [EMPHASIS added.]

Washington was astonished when the Russian fleet showed up in support of China. It hadn’t thought of this. Nor had it occurred to anyone in the Federal Bubble that if America fired on a Russian ship, America would be in a war with Russia. Not a proxy war. Not a regional war. Not a limited war. A war. Everywhere.

This didn’t worry anyone because Washington knew that America had the best trained, best armed, most advanced and hyper-galactic military in the universe. All recent military history supported this understanding, unless you read it, which nobody did. Further, the New York Times demonstrated that the Russians, then occupying Kiev, were badly trained, poorly equipped, suffered from poor morale, and wanted to overthrow their government and divide Russia into five countries under Washington’s control. The Times was famously independent of government, so no further investigation was thought necessary.

Washington had also forgotten Iran. Unfortunately for those in the Potomac Bubbylon, the Iranians, no fools, knew that Washington lacked the manpower, training, munitions, public support, and industrial base, to fight two major wars at once, and probably even one. The mullahs of course had huge stockpiles of missiles and an army not rotted by lgbt, affirmative action, lack of readiness, and impossibly inadequate logistics. So when the IRGC, Syria, Iraq, and all the militias that wanted the US out of the middle east attacked American bases in the region, Washington was sore amazed.

Congress as it turned out had forgotten that Russia had a large, combat hardened, experienced, well-trained and well-supplied army in, who would have thought it, Europe, along with a functioning military industrial base, massive artillery and air support. This Russia was also aware of the inadequacies of the American hypergalactic indomitable social-engineering aquarium that the military had become. Russia also had actual combat experience with hypersonics which America didn’t have, either the missiles or the experience, and Europe didn’t have tanks or ammunition because it had sent them all to the Ukraine where the Russians had blown them up.

Another revelation was that China wasn’t a backward sort of enlarged Guatemala where people manufactured pencils and maybe washing machines under European supervision. Nobody had thought of this. Part of the reason was that the House committee on China had no member who read, wrote, or spoke Chinese but this was not thought important, or thought of, because America was a democracy and thinking had nothing to do with it. It seemed China had a great many engineers of high quality who had spent decades readying China specifically to defeat America in China’s home waters. Simple arithmetic, apparently beyond Congress, none of whose members could calculate a binomial square, suggested that China could build, say, a thousand advanced satellite guided, maneuvering hypersonic antiship missiles, while Washington had at most ten aircraft carriers. A hundred swarm-launched missiles per carrier weren’t important, though. Why not wasn’t clear.

The Navy responded, saying that it was hypergalactic and would defend itself with high-powered lasers that it didn’t have but might get sometime in a few decades, but Lockheed-Martin needed more money to fund this existential etc.

A few in Washington were unsettled when North Korea, seeing a chance to unify the peninsula while Washington was occupied with several major wars, none of which it could win, launched a massive attack southward. Washington didn’t care if a couple of millions of Koreans died, but the South was home to advanced semiconductor fabs, Samsung and SK Hynix. To thwart this threat Washington had to send troops it didn’t have and who in any event weren’t combat-ready by means of logistics that didn’t exist. And of course the North could nuke Seoul and the 28,000 American troops if what’s-his-lunacy had a brain spasm, and could probably nuke Japan.

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founding

BY THIS TIME WASHINGTON HAD BEGUN BOMBING THE CHINESE MAINLAND IN THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE USUAL RULES HELD: AMERICA COULD BOMB ANYBODY BUT NOBODY COULD BOMB AMERICA, WHICH JUST WOULDN’T BE FAIR. AND ALL. WHEN A HALF-DOZEN SUB-LAUNCHED, SATELLITE-GUIDED CRUSE MISSILES, THE KIND RUSSIA AND CHINA HAVE, HIT THE PENTAGON AND KILLED EIGHTY PERCENT OF THOSE WITHIN, THE ASSUMPTION OF INVINCIBILITY UNDERWENT REVISION. A COMMITTEE WAS APPOINTED. OTHER MISSILES HITTING THE NEW WORLD TRADE CENTER AND COASTAL CITIES IN CALIFORNIA SEEMED WORRISOME, AS BOTH STATES VOTED DEMOCRAT. IT WAS NOTED THAT THE CAPITOL AND WHITE HOUSE WERE A SHORT BICYCLE RIDE FROM THE PENTAGON.

When American forces operating out of Japan began attacking China, this put the Japanese at war with Beijing. Chinese and perhaps Russian submarines began burning tankers moving oil from the Gulf to Japan, which didn’t have any. At all. Washington didn’t worry about this because it knew that China would collapse in a few weeks, like the Russians in Ukraine, because of American technology and hypergalactic training and the hissy-fits of its gender-fluid forces. When this didn’t happen, Japan used up its strategic reserves and came to a complete

stop.

At first it was thought that the Navy could send destroyers to convoy tankers to Japan. Then it discovered that it didn’t have any to spare because China had a bigger navy and Washington needed all it could find around Taiwan. Fortunately, this turned out not to be necessary because the Yemenis and Iranians had destroyed the oil facilities around the Gulf, making protecting tankers unnecessary.

When China failed to collapse Washington didn’t know what to do because it hadn’t thought of this and didn’t have a plan B or exit strategy because it was ruled by, if not always doddering dotards, at least those who thought the year was still 1955 and an aircraft carrier could frighten everybody.

Washington decided to block the Strait of Malacca because China would have to surrender. In desperation the Chinese, for whom the war was a matter of national survival, nuked a carrier, or maybe three, I don’t remember. All the hobby hawks and dingalings, as many called them, were greatly amazed because they been told since birth that the use of nuclear weapons would mean catastrophic atomic war and the end of civilization, thought to be a bad thing.

This didn’t make sense, but we are talking about foreign policy. The President was still in the White House. Obviously, those who knew the city reasoned that if the rats weren’t leaving the ship, it wasn’t sinking. If Washington launched nuclear missiles against China, Chinese nuclear missiles would arrive forty-five minutes later and all the hawks in Washington would become clots of feathers in bubbling pools of fat. This appealed to the populace but not those in power.

Further,, did it make sense to commit national suicide over one silly aircraft carrier? The arms industry could build another one. The upshot was that both countries were willing to use nuclear weapons against the other’s forces but not against their homelands. It turned out that Washington had more extra-homelandical, or maybe homelandish, forces than did China.

The rest is well known. There is no reason to recount the deaths of hundreds of millions because of the collapse of world manufacturing and shipping. No one had thought of that.

Source: https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2024/03/25/the-buoyancy-of-psychopaths-and-the-genesis-of-the-great-asian-war/16/ ; EMPHASES added.

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If treason is defined as ".... giving Aid and Comfort" to the enemy and Russia is our sworn enemy wasn't it an act of treason warning them of an impending terrorist attack? Our tax dollars are being used to protect our enemies? Where is my thinking wrong here? Help!

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"Add in some apocalyptic nuclear weapons and now I’m really having a bad Monday." Good one, Bill ;-D

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founding

The Real Questions here, Bill, are really quite simple:

* How long are the American Peoples going to put up with this Bullshit?

* What are they going to DO about it?

* When and How are they going to do that?

* Or is it already too late to do anything and to change anything?

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author

Honest answers are IDK: I don't know.

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founding

OK; then let me consolidate the Questions into one:

What Can and Could the American Peoples DO about the Bullshit? Or at least attempt to DO?

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author

Resist.

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founding

Then the Follow-Up Questions become:

How can They "Resist" without giving the Government and its Media the excuse to call them "Domestic Terrorists"? Or has America reached that stage already?

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author

"Resist" any way that you can. Refuse to believe in BS. Write against it. Vote against it. Speak against it. Protest against it. Boycott. Strike. Hold a one-man vigil in New Orleans.

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founding

Who are they supposed to vote FOR so as to be able to actually vote “against it,” Bill? And how do they get candidates like that on the ballot in the first place?

And who or what should they boycott? The corporatist branch of the MICC? How does somebody boycott Lockheed-Martin, etc?

And who or what should they strike against? Those same folks? Or are You talking about something like high school and university Students refusing to attend classes? What else could other categories of Citizens strike against that could have an impact on what Washington does? How about refusing to pay taxes? Would that work?

And finally, Protests and Vigils, and Writing and Speaking against what this Government has been and is doing have accomplished absolutely nothing in this country since 9/11. What grounds are there for believing that they would suddenly accomplish something today if it is not directly linked to actual Activity and Action in the Real World?

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