This is how capitalism works in the US. It uses captured news media to blast the propaganda, including telling everyone that war is an excellent jobs program. How the US public has become so morally deadened that they aren't repelled by such talk is disturbing. You would think people would be screaming at their representatives to end the carnage being done in the name of "jobs".
A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington today. He said he did it in protest of the genocide in Gaza.
Independent journalist Talia Jane reports that she was able to obtain footage of the incident, which the unnamed man apparently recorded himself. Jane reports that the man said he is “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force” and that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.” After igniting he repeatedly yelled “Free Palestine.”
According to Jane, a police officer showed up pointing a gun at the man’s burning body; I guess that’s just what American cops do when they aren’t sure what to do. Someone who was actually trying to save the man reportedly yelled “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!”
This just might be the most American thing I have ever heard of. It’s more American than the fake bald eagle cries they put in Hollywood movies. It’s more American than monster trucks and mass shootings. You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. If you were to pick a single moment in history to sum up the essence and expression of the US empire, that would be it........................................
Jobs for replacing weapons and munitions given away to Kiev and Tel Aviv are from taxpayer debt/money taken away from more beneficial uses in the US economy!
The unique beneficiaries are workers making things that without Zelensky and Bibi would not be demanded, and the MICC profiteers.
It is all fun for a few until everyone gets nuked.
If my mind doesn’t deceive me, I seem to recollect a statement attributed to George Kennan (the diplomat credited as the architect of the Cold War): „If the Soviet Union would end tomorrow then the U.S. would have to create another.“ I am quite sure that he denounced NnATO expansion after the unification of Germany.
What bothers me is that they only talk about killing Russians when, in fact, they are killing Ukrainians as well. So sending more weapons to Ukraine might get more Russians killed, but it will also get more Ukrainians killed. The only thing we are accomplishing is getting more people killed and creating an environmental disaster.
HOW CAN WAR BE ENDED? A 2024 Veterans Day Pre-Message
"It was the Eleventh Minute of the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month. "
And this Year, 2024, it will be One Hundred and Six Years to the minute since "The End" of "The War To End All War," World War I.
As a retired Centurion of The Empire ~ beginning, in this lifetime at least, Once Upon A Time, long, long, so Very Long ago in a place called Vietnam ~ i spent my entire professional life [some 28years total, 22 on active duty] studying and waging war, or preparing myself and others to wage war. And during that lifetime, War has not changed. At all. Only the Battlefields have changed. And the Weapons. And the Enemies. And, above All, The Victims..... :
"…the Names of the Places, and the Faces of the Wives and the Sons, and the Daughters;
of the Pain, and the Horror; and the cost-plus dis-efficiencies and externalities of the Slaughters…"
But the Perpetrators of War have not changed. Nor have the Perpetuators. And certainly not the Justifiers. But beyond all Them, what [and thus who] really hasn't really changed in any way at all are The Beneficiaries of War: The Chosen Ones; those who, by War, expropriate Wealth and Power, so as to extract and consume and generate even more Power and more Wealth, so as to extract and obliterate even more. And More. And ever and even MORE, and MORE... . These Ones have most definitively, definitely, and decidedly NOT Changed. At all.
Since long, long, so Very Long before that eleventh minute of that eleventh hour of that eleventh day of that eleventh month, the Perpetrators, Perpetuators, Justifiers, and Beneficiaries~ especially The Beneficiaries~ of War have not changed.
So, one might be moved to ask: So What? Now What?
So. imagine~ if you Can and Dare~ if even for but a moment, that there are no Beneficiaries. That the answer to the simply elegant and ultimately eloquent Question of "War: CUI BONO?" is, quite simply elegantly and ultimately eloquently, "NoBody."
EnVision, if You can, a world in which NoBody gains AnyThing, at All, from War. At least not AnyThing Economic or Political; at least not Wealth or Power.
EnVision, if You dare, a World in which no employer, supervisor, employee, stockholder; no politician, bureaucrat, political appointee, general or underlinging warrior; no imam or priest or rabbi nor any of their various and variously true believers; no conqueror, emperor, Fuhrer, or other self-[or media] - proclaimed would-be/wannabe god-on-Earth [or at least his Designated Liege].
NoBody gains AnyThing from, by, through, with, as a result of, or because of War. NoBody. AnyThing. At all.
Because if you can imagine that World: then, perhaps you will thus begin to Begin to see exactly How and Why, then, that the Perpetrators, Perpetuators, and Justifiers of War could and would be castrated: and thus rendered inert, irrelevant, and bankrupt; defeated, disarmed and dismantled, destroyed, dispersed, and disappeared.
And, even more importantly, you would begin to Begin to understand exactly Why and How, then, that the Beneficiaries of War would and could be not merely similarly castrated and rended and thus rendered inertly nil, but indeed also thus crucified on a Cross of Gold, made in their own image and fashioned by their own hand.
And that finally and thus, with NoBody to benefit, gain, or in any other Ways to profit from War, that there would Be No War.
So What? Now What? Any Suggestions? And another Question is: When will You weary of the all the BullShit?
Have a Great day today, and see you at 11:11:11 on l1.11. 24.
Appendix: A No War-For-Profit Amendment to the Constitution of The United States
1. Any and/or All organizations or individuals doing business with the Military Industrial Congressional Complex [MICC] or the Secrecy Surveillance Censorship FatherLand Security Panopticon [SSCFSP] will and thus must be publicly-held NON-PROFIT enterprises.
2. No individual, bank. and/ or any other financial or other institution [including foreign nations' and their money-lenders] doing business with the MICC and the SSCFSP may earn any interest or other profit from loans, bonds, or any other fiduciary instruments used by the Government of The United States to finance or otherwise "pay for" this nation's Wars-by-Credit Card of the 21st century.
3. No print, electronic, and/or internet-based news or otherwise info-entertainment media organization may be owned and/or operated by any organization or individual doing business with the MICC or SSCFSP.
Biden/Blinken/Sullivan/Nuland: War mongering psychopaths and sociopaths, one and all. The vice-like grip of all levers of power by the likes of Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc. is total. They control the think tanks, the mainstream media and both the WH and Congress. Their tentacles extend to every nook and cranny of this society. The words peace, diplomacy, peaceful co-existence, disarmament, negotiation, etc. are banished. Book burning may not be far off. The $$ must keep flowing, the super profits must keep piling up on top of all the dead, wounded, and traumatized.....all sacrificed in the name of spreading "freedom and democracy."
Just after I posted this, I saw William Hartung’s new piece at TomDispatch, which tackles the same subject but with more detail. Check it out at https://tomdispatch.com/war-is-bad-for-you-and-the-economy/
This is how capitalism works in the US. It uses captured news media to blast the propaganda, including telling everyone that war is an excellent jobs program. How the US public has become so morally deadened that they aren't repelled by such talk is disturbing. You would think people would be screaming at their representatives to end the carnage being done in the name of "jobs".
'The Most American Thing That Has Ever Happened'
A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington today. He said he did it in protest of the genocide in Gaza.
Independent journalist Talia Jane reports that she was able to obtain footage of the incident, which the unnamed man apparently recorded himself. Jane reports that the man said he is “an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force” and that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.” After igniting he repeatedly yelled “Free Palestine.”
According to Jane, a police officer showed up pointing a gun at the man’s burning body; I guess that’s just what American cops do when they aren’t sure what to do. Someone who was actually trying to save the man reportedly yelled “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers!”
This just might be the most American thing I have ever heard of. It’s more American than the fake bald eagle cries they put in Hollywood movies. It’s more American than monster trucks and mass shootings. You simply cannot fit more America into a single incident than a man dying a horrifying death in protest of war crimes while a first responder screams at cops to stop pointing their guns at him and go get fire extinguishers. If you were to pick a single moment in history to sum up the essence and expression of the US empire, that would be it........................................
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-most-american-thing-that-has-335
Jobs for replacing weapons and munitions given away to Kiev and Tel Aviv are from taxpayer debt/money taken away from more beneficial uses in the US economy!
The unique beneficiaries are workers making things that without Zelensky and Bibi would not be demanded, and the MICC profiteers.
It is all fun for a few until everyone gets nuked.
If my mind doesn’t deceive me, I seem to recollect a statement attributed to George Kennan (the diplomat credited as the architect of the Cold War): „If the Soviet Union would end tomorrow then the U.S. would have to create another.“ I am quite sure that he denounced NnATO expansion after the unification of Germany.
What bothers me is that they only talk about killing Russians when, in fact, they are killing Ukrainians as well. So sending more weapons to Ukraine might get more Russians killed, but it will also get more Ukrainians killed. The only thing we are accomplishing is getting more people killed and creating an environmental disaster.
HOW CAN WAR BE ENDED? A 2024 Veterans Day Pre-Message
"It was the Eleventh Minute of the Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month. "
And this Year, 2024, it will be One Hundred and Six Years to the minute since "The End" of "The War To End All War," World War I.
As a retired Centurion of The Empire ~ beginning, in this lifetime at least, Once Upon A Time, long, long, so Very Long ago in a place called Vietnam ~ i spent my entire professional life [some 28years total, 22 on active duty] studying and waging war, or preparing myself and others to wage war. And during that lifetime, War has not changed. At all. Only the Battlefields have changed. And the Weapons. And the Enemies. And, above All, The Victims..... :
"…the Names of the Places, and the Faces of the Wives and the Sons, and the Daughters;
of the Pain, and the Horror; and the cost-plus dis-efficiencies and externalities of the Slaughters…"
But the Perpetrators of War have not changed. Nor have the Perpetuators. And certainly not the Justifiers. But beyond all Them, what [and thus who] really hasn't really changed in any way at all are The Beneficiaries of War: The Chosen Ones; those who, by War, expropriate Wealth and Power, so as to extract and consume and generate even more Power and more Wealth, so as to extract and obliterate even more. And More. And ever and even MORE, and MORE... . These Ones have most definitively, definitely, and decidedly NOT Changed. At all.
Since long, long, so Very Long before that eleventh minute of that eleventh hour of that eleventh day of that eleventh month, the Perpetrators, Perpetuators, Justifiers, and Beneficiaries~ especially The Beneficiaries~ of War have not changed.
So, one might be moved to ask: So What? Now What?
So. imagine~ if you Can and Dare~ if even for but a moment, that there are no Beneficiaries. That the answer to the simply elegant and ultimately eloquent Question of "War: CUI BONO?" is, quite simply elegantly and ultimately eloquently, "NoBody."
EnVision, if You can, a world in which NoBody gains AnyThing, at All, from War. At least not AnyThing Economic or Political; at least not Wealth or Power.
EnVision, if You dare, a World in which no employer, supervisor, employee, stockholder; no politician, bureaucrat, political appointee, general or underlinging warrior; no imam or priest or rabbi nor any of their various and variously true believers; no conqueror, emperor, Fuhrer, or other self-[or media] - proclaimed would-be/wannabe god-on-Earth [or at least his Designated Liege].
NoBody gains AnyThing from, by, through, with, as a result of, or because of War. NoBody. AnyThing. At all.
Because if you can imagine that World: then, perhaps you will thus begin to Begin to see exactly How and Why, then, that the Perpetrators, Perpetuators, and Justifiers of War could and would be castrated: and thus rendered inert, irrelevant, and bankrupt; defeated, disarmed and dismantled, destroyed, dispersed, and disappeared.
And, even more importantly, you would begin to Begin to understand exactly Why and How, then, that the Beneficiaries of War would and could be not merely similarly castrated and rended and thus rendered inertly nil, but indeed also thus crucified on a Cross of Gold, made in their own image and fashioned by their own hand.
And that finally and thus, with NoBody to benefit, gain, or in any other Ways to profit from War, that there would Be No War.
So What? Now What? Any Suggestions? And another Question is: When will You weary of the all the BullShit?
Have a Great day today, and see you at 11:11:11 on l1.11. 24.
Appendix: A No War-For-Profit Amendment to the Constitution of The United States
1. Any and/or All organizations or individuals doing business with the Military Industrial Congressional Complex [MICC] or the Secrecy Surveillance Censorship FatherLand Security Panopticon [SSCFSP] will and thus must be publicly-held NON-PROFIT enterprises.
2. No individual, bank. and/ or any other financial or other institution [including foreign nations' and their money-lenders] doing business with the MICC and the SSCFSP may earn any interest or other profit from loans, bonds, or any other fiduciary instruments used by the Government of The United States to finance or otherwise "pay for" this nation's Wars-by-Credit Card of the 21st century.
3. No print, electronic, and/or internet-based news or otherwise info-entertainment media organization may be owned and/or operated by any organization or individual doing business with the MICC or SSCFSP.
Great Think Piece, Bill. And Thankee for the link to Hartung's piece on Tom Dispatch. Another Great TP.
Biden/Blinken/Sullivan/Nuland: War mongering psychopaths and sociopaths, one and all. The vice-like grip of all levers of power by the likes of Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc. is total. They control the think tanks, the mainstream media and both the WH and Congress. Their tentacles extend to every nook and cranny of this society. The words peace, diplomacy, peaceful co-existence, disarmament, negotiation, etc. are banished. Book burning may not be far off. The $$ must keep flowing, the super profits must keep piling up on top of all the dead, wounded, and traumatized.....all sacrificed in the name of spreading "freedom and democracy."
I like what you're preaching Bill.