Dennis: You wrote: “I see [Matt Hoh’s] running for senate as folly in the same way as Ralph Nader's foray into politics. Ralph had huge nationwide name recognition. And a track record of taking on the powerful and winning. And with a platform similar to Mat's, that you and I believe in, he never got to first base in politics.”
There are those who claim that Nader got to first base and beyond by costing Gore that election.
Which is Total and Complete Bullshit. If Gore had won EITHER his home state of Tennessee OR Clinton’s home state of Arkansas, he would have won that election regardless of what happened in Florida. Which makes Gore the only presidential candidate in history besides George McGovern in 1972 to lose his own state. And the only candidate to lose the home state of a seated President of the same party.
As i wrote back in July of 2004 shortly after John Kerry became the Democrats’ candidate for Election2004:
The simple fact of the matter is that because liberals, progressives, and radicals did not have the balls to vote their conscience, but instead voted for what they thought was a sure-fire way to win, GORE COST NADER THE ELECTION.
Because these people voted for one of the biggest thugs, liars, hypocrites, and thieves in Washington DC, they turned their backs on the ONLY true liberal, progressive, and radical in the campaign…the ONLY candidate with a life history consistent with true, alleged, and so-called democratic, liberal, and progressive values, principles, and ideals.
And, they got what they voted for. And what they deserved.
How is that?
My guess is that it was understood by all concerned that the Clinton/Gore wing of The Party had had its time in power (eight years to be exact), and that they had accomplished what they had been sent there to do:
* keep the Sanctions going in Iraq;
* facilitate globalization [on whose watch did NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO come into being?];
* facilitate the corporatization of medical care in the U.S.;
* de-regulate the media and communications industry;
* start letting people learn more and more about the evils of radical, fundamentalist Muslim terrorism;
* continue the tradition of un-declared, un-challenged, un-controlled War [(Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc etc etc];
* run a couple of 9/11 dress rehearsals [WTC bombing, Oklahoma City bombing];
* normalize post-Tiananmen Square relations with crypto-capitalistic Communist China;
* and piss off enough people with a President dumb enough to get caught getting a blowjob in the Oval Office from a woman young enough to be his daughter, and then get caught lying about it. But how else could something like MoveOn.org be spawned?
And that it was thus now time for the other guys in The Party to have their time at the helm, and to continue The Long March. You know….; The 8-On-8-Off Deal. “You guys take the Executive Branch for eight years and get your fair share of the loot, and then we’ll take it for our eight and get our fair share.”
Thus, while The Cheney Regime has accomplished just about everything that they were sent there to do [except perhaps to more totally and effectively rape, pillage, and plunder the U.S. Treasury], it’s unlikely that Kerry is anything more than a dutifully sacrificial Burning Bunny in the tradition of Bob Dole and Walter Mondale.
Received this statement from the Libertarian Party today:
Angela McArdle, on the House's passing the 2023 NDAA yesterday:
"Thankfully, the Covid vaccine mandates were removed from the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, but it’s difficult to see how this bill is anything other than another welfare program for the rich warmongers in the corporate war industry. This NDAA will steal $10 billion in taxpayer dollars and give it to the Taiwanese government so they can buy weapons from companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. It also provides $800 million in taxpayer funds for Congress to purchase weapons from these companies for Ukraine, a country that is stripping away religious liberties as we speak.
Every year the budget of the NDAA gets bigger, and the world becomes more dangerous. When will we wake up to our senses and recognize the destruction that this evil industry brings to life and liberty?"
PEACE CANDIDATE, EX-MARINE CAPTAIN MATTHEW HOH: WAR IS A BIPARTISAN CANCEL CULTURE
*** How Democrats, their pro-war Republican cohorts and the media canceled the U.S. Senate campaign of ex-Marine and US foreign policy official Matthew Hoh. ***
People working within the US government or military who report something wrong related to their work can face a life of ostracization, criminalization and even torture. After serving 10 years in the Marines, Matthew Hoh, who later became a foreign service officer, decided to stand up to the war machine and become the first US official to resign in protest of the Afghanistan War. His stance for peace did not serve him well when he recently ran for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, having had to go to court just to get his Green Party on the ballot.
Joining Scheer Intelligence this week with host Robert Scheer, Hoh comes fresh off his new mission to effect change in the country. Ten-plus years after his internationally publicized resignation, Matthew’s Senate campaign focused on inequities and injustices, from universal healthcare to antiwar commitment to rent control. Hoh hits the core of much of what’s wrong in the US today. Armed with vast experience serving the country and standing up for progressive issues, voters could not see through the fog of war, media reports and identity politics that inhibited Hoh’s candidacy.
“There is a very real connection there between what I had experienced in the military [and] in the government with this race, in terms of the dissonance that exists between the narrative and the reality of things,” Hoh said. He is often able to relate and compare his experiences in the military to that in the civilian world, where things like corruption, careerism and fear mongering affects the actions of others and too often prevents good from prevailing, leaving the least among us to suffer while the war effort prospers.
I love his point about narrative control in the U.S. military. We can't admit Iraqi resistance was due to the U.S. occupation and specific events like Abu Ghraib. We tell ourselves lies so we can wage a war based on lies. We defeat ourselves because we deny the truth that's in front of our faces. It's incredible, really. "The great lie," as Matt Hoh says. You just execute policy and go along with the great lie -- moments of lucidity are buried in absurd amounts of make-work busyness. And that can lead to moral injury -- regret and shame.
I'm not sure why you're determined to dismiss Matt Hoh as "insignificant" and his efforts as amounting to "nothing."
I could say the same for my writing. I reach a fairly small audience. I can't see where my writing has shifted the debate or weakened the MICC.
Should I quit? By the way, why are you bothering to comment? Isn't it all a complete waste of time, as you suggested? If you think what Hoh is doing, what I'm doing, is insignificant and irrelevant, do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Campaign for Trump/Greene in 2024.
I don't mean this in a negative way. It just seems like you think this is all folly, so I'm genuinely confused why you read my stuff and comment on it.
Nor included is the cost of the Secrecy-Security-Surveillance Panopticon and the increasingly militarized Praetorian Guard of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Dennis: You wrote: “I see [Matt Hoh’s] running for senate as folly in the same way as Ralph Nader's foray into politics. Ralph had huge nationwide name recognition. And a track record of taking on the powerful and winning. And with a platform similar to Mat's, that you and I believe in, he never got to first base in politics.”
There are those who claim that Nader got to first base and beyond by costing Gore that election.
Which is Total and Complete Bullshit. If Gore had won EITHER his home state of Tennessee OR Clinton’s home state of Arkansas, he would have won that election regardless of what happened in Florida. Which makes Gore the only presidential candidate in history besides George McGovern in 1972 to lose his own state. And the only candidate to lose the home state of a seated President of the same party.
As i wrote back in July of 2004 shortly after John Kerry became the Democrats’ candidate for Election2004:
The simple fact of the matter is that because liberals, progressives, and radicals did not have the balls to vote their conscience, but instead voted for what they thought was a sure-fire way to win, GORE COST NADER THE ELECTION.
Because these people voted for one of the biggest thugs, liars, hypocrites, and thieves in Washington DC, they turned their backs on the ONLY true liberal, progressive, and radical in the campaign…the ONLY candidate with a life history consistent with true, alleged, and so-called democratic, liberal, and progressive values, principles, and ideals.
And, they got what they voted for. And what they deserved.
How is that?
My guess is that it was understood by all concerned that the Clinton/Gore wing of The Party had had its time in power (eight years to be exact), and that they had accomplished what they had been sent there to do:
* keep the Sanctions going in Iraq;
* facilitate globalization [on whose watch did NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO come into being?];
* facilitate the corporatization of medical care in the U.S.;
* de-regulate the media and communications industry;
* start letting people learn more and more about the evils of radical, fundamentalist Muslim terrorism;
* continue the tradition of un-declared, un-challenged, un-controlled War [(Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc etc etc];
* run a couple of 9/11 dress rehearsals [WTC bombing, Oklahoma City bombing];
* normalize post-Tiananmen Square relations with crypto-capitalistic Communist China;
* and piss off enough people with a President dumb enough to get caught getting a blowjob in the Oval Office from a woman young enough to be his daughter, and then get caught lying about it. But how else could something like MoveOn.org be spawned?
And that it was thus now time for the other guys in The Party to have their time at the helm, and to continue The Long March. You know….; The 8-On-8-Off Deal. “You guys take the Executive Branch for eight years and get your fair share of the loot, and then we’ll take it for our eight and get our fair share.”
Thus, while The Cheney Regime has accomplished just about everything that they were sent there to do [except perhaps to more totally and effectively rape, pillage, and plunder the U.S. Treasury], it’s unlikely that Kerry is anything more than a dutifully sacrificial Burning Bunny in the tradition of Bob Dole and Walter Mondale.
Received this statement from the Libertarian Party today:
Angela McArdle, on the House's passing the 2023 NDAA yesterday:
"Thankfully, the Covid vaccine mandates were removed from the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, but it’s difficult to see how this bill is anything other than another welfare program for the rich warmongers in the corporate war industry. This NDAA will steal $10 billion in taxpayer dollars and give it to the Taiwanese government so they can buy weapons from companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. It also provides $800 million in taxpayer funds for Congress to purchase weapons from these companies for Ukraine, a country that is stripping away religious liberties as we speak.
Every year the budget of the NDAA gets bigger, and the world becomes more dangerous. When will we wake up to our senses and recognize the destruction that this evil industry brings to life and liberty?"
So what do You propose people like Matt Hoh do, Dennis?
Sit around on their ass all day on the internet and social media bitching about how irrelevant people like You think they are?
The simple fact is that they regard people like You as irrelevant as You regard them.
Did You see this, Bill?
PEACE CANDIDATE, EX-MARINE CAPTAIN MATTHEW HOH: WAR IS A BIPARTISAN CANCEL CULTURE
*** How Democrats, their pro-war Republican cohorts and the media canceled the U.S. Senate campaign of ex-Marine and US foreign policy official Matthew Hoh. ***
People working within the US government or military who report something wrong related to their work can face a life of ostracization, criminalization and even torture. After serving 10 years in the Marines, Matthew Hoh, who later became a foreign service officer, decided to stand up to the war machine and become the first US official to resign in protest of the Afghanistan War. His stance for peace did not serve him well when he recently ran for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, having had to go to court just to get his Green Party on the ballot.
Joining Scheer Intelligence this week with host Robert Scheer, Hoh comes fresh off his new mission to effect change in the country. Ten-plus years after his internationally publicized resignation, Matthew’s Senate campaign focused on inequities and injustices, from universal healthcare to antiwar commitment to rent control. Hoh hits the core of much of what’s wrong in the US today. Armed with vast experience serving the country and standing up for progressive issues, voters could not see through the fog of war, media reports and identity politics that inhibited Hoh’s candidacy.
“There is a very real connection there between what I had experienced in the military [and] in the government with this race, in terms of the dissonance that exists between the narrative and the reality of things,” Hoh said. He is often able to relate and compare his experiences in the military to that in the civilian world, where things like corruption, careerism and fear mongering affects the actions of others and too often prevents good from prevailing, leaving the least among us to suffer while the war effort prospers.
Full interview at https://scheerpost.com/2022/12/02/peace-candidate-ex-marine-captain-matthew-hoh-war-is-a-bipartisan-cancel-culture/
I love his point about narrative control in the U.S. military. We can't admit Iraqi resistance was due to the U.S. occupation and specific events like Abu Ghraib. We tell ourselves lies so we can wage a war based on lies. We defeat ourselves because we deny the truth that's in front of our faces. It's incredible, really. "The great lie," as Matt Hoh says. You just execute policy and go along with the great lie -- moments of lucidity are buried in absurd amounts of make-work busyness. And that can lead to moral injury -- regret and shame.
Matt Hoh is so honest and perceptive.
I'm listening to it now!
The Comments to the Sheerpost article are worth a read, as well.
He's significant to me, Dennis.
I'm not sure why you're determined to dismiss Matt Hoh as "insignificant" and his efforts as amounting to "nothing."
I could say the same for my writing. I reach a fairly small audience. I can't see where my writing has shifted the debate or weakened the MICC.
Should I quit? By the way, why are you bothering to comment? Isn't it all a complete waste of time, as you suggested? If you think what Hoh is doing, what I'm doing, is insignificant and irrelevant, do yourself a favor and go elsewhere. Campaign for Trump/Greene in 2024.
I don't mean this in a negative way. It just seems like you think this is all folly, so I'm genuinely confused why you read my stuff and comment on it.
It's a shame Substack doesn't have a "Dislike" button for comments, like Disqus does.
Nor included is the cost of the Secrecy-Security-Surveillance Panopticon and the increasingly militarized Praetorian Guard of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.