Todays post is brought to you by the unemployment rate! Hooray for new data that shows the unemployment rate shrinking from 10.2% all the way down to 10.1%. Thank goodness for that! Oh, and i know what you're thinking, but it has nothing to do with the fact that there were more layoffs but the number of people who gave up looking for work they are qualified for and took part time work making minimum wage so that they could feed themselves slightly exceeded the number of people laid off. Also, i do not at all buy into the idea that large corporations have figured out that the unemployment report scares their customers into not spending money and in turn they have found ways to cut peoples hours/wages/benefits instead of laying them off. That's just silly. So here's to the 0.1% of people that are now un-unemployed and all the projections that show a major recovery so imminent that i can almost taste it.
Okay, so today i was listening to the radio on my way to buy a 89 cent burrito at Taco Bell (i was going to get a 99 cent burger, but i could only find 93 pennies under the seat in my car) and a guy who works for the "Mutual Fund Store" was telling his audience that mutual funds were a great place to invest their money right now and that the economy was going to rebound very soon and so would the market (ie. mutual funds). Really? That's like me telling you that it is a great time to invest all your money in tires for your car, and maybe some coolant flushes. I mean you can never have too many coolant flushes. Could the guy have made any more self-serving predictions? How about, "I think that my personal checking account is a great place to invest your money"? I'm sure that the Fed's fiscal policy is just getting ready to fix the whole massive unpayable debt/ no jobs/ falsified earnings reports/ inevitable hyper inflation. So yeah ... go buy mutual funds.
In Florida news, Pasco County (for you non-Floridians that's like the New Jersey of Tampa Bay, well it's like New Jersey with more trailer parks and cows and less disgraced govenors and Trans-Ams) has announced that they have their third official death directly due to H1N1 this year. So directly means that the person died from H1N1 and that if it wasn't for the piggy-flu they would still be driving their pick up around Pasco county ... right? So the man was really healthy except for the H1N1 and the " ... multiple chronic underlying medical conditions." My heart goes out to the man and his family. That said, isn't this a bit like blaming the death of a 106 year old on blood thinners who has had 16 by-pass surgeries and two stokes on the flu. If the state of your health is best described using words like "chronic" and "underlying" with "multiple" thrown in for good measure can we really say the flu killed you? Or is it more accurate to say he died and ... by the way, he also had the flu?
In sports news, Florida lost to Alabama proving once and for all that Florida coach Urban Meyer's insistance that Tim Tebow include the other 10 players on the offense is a huge miscalculation. If only Tebow had been out there by himself the Gators would have rushed for 16,000 yards and Tebow would finally been able to prove that he can complete a "go rout" pass to himself like he claims. In other sports news England will be avenging that whole "uppity colonist" debacle from the late 18th century in March when they embarress their former posession on the "Football pitch" during the world cup's first round of play.
In celebrity news Chris Brown stated in an interview that he "never, ever had problems with anger." Which would be great if he hadn't beaten and choked his girlfriend because she made him angry. Well, i guess tecnically she was the one who had the problem with his anger, in this case the problem she had was breathing and seeing through her swolen eye. When is Chris Brown going to go away and just hide in the cave that Ike Turner spent 20 years in?
In closing i need some help coming up with a great Christmas present idea for my wife ... Angela don't read this part ... so if you have any ideas please share in the comments section. If you're thinking Rolex ... you probably need to think more Timex. Thanks.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Friday, Welcome Home!
Today's post is brought to you by people who trample their friends and neighbors to death in search of flat screen TVs. That's the kind of determination and focus that this country was founded upon ... refusal to yeild to measly obsticles like human decency, the half dead bodies of weaker shoppers and empathy again won the day last friday!
So the apellate court of Florida ruled this week that the state legislature does not have the right to ignore a request of the Sons of the Confederacy to have a conferate flag vanity plate here in the great state of Florida. The law apparently says that if you have $20,000 and 30,000 signatures you can have any lisence plate that you want. So that's why there are 500 choices at the tag office down here. I don't know where to start with this one. There are 30,000 racist morons in Florida? I for one am shocked! The Florida lesislature has a law on the books that is poorly thought out and allows for people to drown minorities in our history of brutality, murder, rape and enslavement? C'mon ... i can't believe it! I mean honestly, it's really not enough that i drive by a confederate flag the size of a football field everyday at the intersection of the two busiest interstates in Tampa, i would like to also see it with a state sanctioned registration sticker on it.
And in the land of the sympathy strike (France), a place where every working person goes on strike if plumbers want a raise and even emergency room doctors are in a labor union, the workers at the Louvre have decided to strike in protest of potential layoffs. I mean why should you lay off museum workers just because no one is going to the museum and in coming revenue has become as scarce as cheese without mold on it . I know, they could sell the Mona Lisa to China and use the money to pay for the extra ticket takers and guys who wear red jackets while standing around in a very official manner. That or they could have special exhibits that French people would love like paintings of people running away, or a whole room full of white flags. Or there's always the participatory exhibit where regular French people could blow filterless cigarette smoke in the faces of American tourist families. That one i bet they could charge at least 100 euros just for, lines around the block.. Problem solved.
This one hits pretty close to home on a bunch of fronts, and i know what you're thinking, but i was never abused by a nun. In Ireland the "Sisters of Mercy" order of catholic nuns have agreed to pay $193 million dollars in damages as part of a settlement for 14,000 victims of "systematic and chronic" child abuse by 18 different catholic orders who had children in their care. $90 million will be paid in cash and the rest in property holdings. That's right the Sisters of Mercy have $193 MILLION in assets that they can spare ... nuns ... nuns in a country that until very recently plagued by poverty and unemployment. Aparenty the abuse of the children included beating them up and taking their lunch money ... everyday for the past 800 years.
And i suppose i have to weigh in on the Tiger Woods thing ... i mean, everyone else is. So i don't really care about his relationship with his wife, he's right, it is private. It's completly up to her if she wants to forgive him or not (double the pre-nup) but have you seen the tramps he was running around with? Two words for you Tiger, Penicillin Bath ... rince and repeat buddy, rince and repeat.
So the apellate court of Florida ruled this week that the state legislature does not have the right to ignore a request of the Sons of the Confederacy to have a conferate flag vanity plate here in the great state of Florida. The law apparently says that if you have $20,000 and 30,000 signatures you can have any lisence plate that you want. So that's why there are 500 choices at the tag office down here. I don't know where to start with this one. There are 30,000 racist morons in Florida? I for one am shocked! The Florida lesislature has a law on the books that is poorly thought out and allows for people to drown minorities in our history of brutality, murder, rape and enslavement? C'mon ... i can't believe it! I mean honestly, it's really not enough that i drive by a confederate flag the size of a football field everyday at the intersection of the two busiest interstates in Tampa, i would like to also see it with a state sanctioned registration sticker on it.
And in the land of the sympathy strike (France), a place where every working person goes on strike if plumbers want a raise and even emergency room doctors are in a labor union, the workers at the Louvre have decided to strike in protest of potential layoffs. I mean why should you lay off museum workers just because no one is going to the museum and in coming revenue has become as scarce as cheese without mold on it . I know, they could sell the Mona Lisa to China and use the money to pay for the extra ticket takers and guys who wear red jackets while standing around in a very official manner. That or they could have special exhibits that French people would love like paintings of people running away, or a whole room full of white flags. Or there's always the participatory exhibit where regular French people could blow filterless cigarette smoke in the faces of American tourist families. That one i bet they could charge at least 100 euros just for, lines around the block.. Problem solved.
This one hits pretty close to home on a bunch of fronts, and i know what you're thinking, but i was never abused by a nun. In Ireland the "Sisters of Mercy" order of catholic nuns have agreed to pay $193 million dollars in damages as part of a settlement for 14,000 victims of "systematic and chronic" child abuse by 18 different catholic orders who had children in their care. $90 million will be paid in cash and the rest in property holdings. That's right the Sisters of Mercy have $193 MILLION in assets that they can spare ... nuns ... nuns in a country that until very recently plagued by poverty and unemployment. Aparenty the abuse of the children included beating them up and taking their lunch money ... everyday for the past 800 years.
And i suppose i have to weigh in on the Tiger Woods thing ... i mean, everyone else is. So i don't really care about his relationship with his wife, he's right, it is private. It's completly up to her if she wants to forgive him or not (double the pre-nup) but have you seen the tramps he was running around with? Two words for you Tiger, Penicillin Bath ... rince and repeat buddy, rince and repeat.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Bold Predictions
I'm going to take the bold step of predicting the path of health care reform in the United States. I know what you're thinking, "Denis, you're too young and no one can predict what the great moral crusaders in Washington are going to do to save us, and even if someone could it would be a true Merlin of public policy equipped with a plethora of Phd's and the long white beard of socially accepted wisdom." I'll grant you that, if i had a long white beard i would feel more comfortable making predictions.
But here we go just the same. Today the House of Representatives passed a bill entitled HR 3692 with an overwhelming majority (220-215) no make that a 5 man landslide! HR 3692 is a 1000 page epic that depending on who you listen to either raises your taxes or removes benefits from seniors or limits the autonomy of the insurance conglomerates or turns the United States into the People's Republic of the Red White and Blue or makes everything you ever wanted free while making all of the problems currently associated with medical care disappear in a dramatic "poof" ... it might be all or none of these, and at least a few pages of the bill may or may not include the much debated "public option".
What they voted on today doesn't really matter. Here's what will happen next. The Senate will pass a bill that also may or may not have something in it related to medical care but it will be nothing like the bill passed in the house. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will be shorter and not include the "public option" and there will be a clause that says all the senators get jobs consulting for insurance companies if they ever lose an election. Then the President will scold all of them and tell them that they really need to have a consensus for the "good of the American people". The legislature will spend a bunch of time on local TV talking about how they really want change (people like that word) and it's the other guy's fault that the bill has not already passed and you have not yet received your personal MRI machine. Then they will go back to Washington and pass a bill that keeps the Senator's get jobs clause, adds in a amendment that says everyone must mail $1 to the CEO of Humana, raises your taxes and says something vague about a tax break for people who have to pay for their own insurance, but to get the tax break you will have to spend $10,000 per year on medical expenses and earn less than $50,000 in household income (those numbers might be pie in the sky, but i bet they're close).President Obama will go on TV and say that the legislators are the greatest Americans in history for fighting a courageous battle to maintain the status quo and there will be some vague promises about the improvements being phased in over the next 5 years. You will either feel enraged or apathetic as a result and a bunch of republicans will be elected in 2010 as a result of the ensuing passion/lack of passion.
If all that is too much for you i'll break it down: elected officials will pretend to have ideological argument about entitlements and responsibilities, the president will step in, a bill will be signed into law that will not positively effect you in anyway, rich insurance execs and lobbyists will dine on endangered species flame broiled over burning $100 bills, elected officials will claim victory/demonize the other party in order to collect votes for next time. Oh, and you will watch and listen to all of it for months.
Meanwhile ......................................over here, there will be 40,000 more young Americans sent to fight in Afghanistan, there will be a war in Yemen, a debt crisis in Africa, tensions in South America, tensions in the occupied west bank and a crisis with Iran's desire to be a self determining nation state that can decide as it wishes to power itself with out buying their fuel from a NATO country, a domestic financial system that is about to collapse, record unemployment stagnating wages and decreased domestic production. SO remember, while your government is off sticking its nose where it does not belong we need you to go ahead and just watch as the democratically elected legislature ignores to will of the people who elected them, please focus on Health Care. Thank you.
But here we go just the same. Today the House of Representatives passed a bill entitled HR 3692 with an overwhelming majority (220-215) no make that a 5 man landslide! HR 3692 is a 1000 page epic that depending on who you listen to either raises your taxes or removes benefits from seniors or limits the autonomy of the insurance conglomerates or turns the United States into the People's Republic of the Red White and Blue or makes everything you ever wanted free while making all of the problems currently associated with medical care disappear in a dramatic "poof" ... it might be all or none of these, and at least a few pages of the bill may or may not include the much debated "public option".
What they voted on today doesn't really matter. Here's what will happen next. The Senate will pass a bill that also may or may not have something in it related to medical care but it will be nothing like the bill passed in the house. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will be shorter and not include the "public option" and there will be a clause that says all the senators get jobs consulting for insurance companies if they ever lose an election. Then the President will scold all of them and tell them that they really need to have a consensus for the "good of the American people". The legislature will spend a bunch of time on local TV talking about how they really want change (people like that word) and it's the other guy's fault that the bill has not already passed and you have not yet received your personal MRI machine. Then they will go back to Washington and pass a bill that keeps the Senator's get jobs clause, adds in a amendment that says everyone must mail $1 to the CEO of Humana, raises your taxes and says something vague about a tax break for people who have to pay for their own insurance, but to get the tax break you will have to spend $10,000 per year on medical expenses and earn less than $50,000 in household income (those numbers might be pie in the sky, but i bet they're close).President Obama will go on TV and say that the legislators are the greatest Americans in history for fighting a courageous battle to maintain the status quo and there will be some vague promises about the improvements being phased in over the next 5 years. You will either feel enraged or apathetic as a result and a bunch of republicans will be elected in 2010 as a result of the ensuing passion/lack of passion.
If all that is too much for you i'll break it down: elected officials will pretend to have ideological argument about entitlements and responsibilities, the president will step in, a bill will be signed into law that will not positively effect you in anyway, rich insurance execs and lobbyists will dine on endangered species flame broiled over burning $100 bills, elected officials will claim victory/demonize the other party in order to collect votes for next time. Oh, and you will watch and listen to all of it for months.
Meanwhile ......................................over here, there will be 40,000 more young Americans sent to fight in Afghanistan, there will be a war in Yemen, a debt crisis in Africa, tensions in South America, tensions in the occupied west bank and a crisis with Iran's desire to be a self determining nation state that can decide as it wishes to power itself with out buying their fuel from a NATO country, a domestic financial system that is about to collapse, record unemployment stagnating wages and decreased domestic production. SO remember, while your government is off sticking its nose where it does not belong we need you to go ahead and just watch as the democratically elected legislature ignores to will of the people who elected them, please focus on Health Care. Thank you.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Really?
So I have this "ad-aware" thing on here and it's there so that if you click on them then i get paid ... i am not encouraging you to do it, because i don't care and also because i'm not allowed to. Anyway, that's not the point ... the fun part is that if i type something like "ESPN is the worst channel ever created, they have ruined watching sports by over dissecting every sneeze to satisfy the plethora of networks they launched with no real demand. ESPN tries to create sports news not report it and they are typical of what has happened to journalism ... reporting has been replaced by the attempted sale of news which leads to mindless sensationalism and the promotion of trivial nonsense while ignoring real stories that might not sell. ESPN is symptomatic of everything that is wrong with TV, sports and news." There will be an ad for ESPN right below that post. SO, don't click on it, but it's there isn't it. Computers are dumb ... they don't get sarcasm at all!
So that's fun. In other news i'm looking into the concept of micro-lending, which works really well in devoloping countries like the bank in Bangladesh that loaned out $6.4 billion in 7.2 billion loans, that's right, it's less than $1 each. So, i'm thinking that we have the same issues here and in every capitalist country in the world ($1 might not work here) but loaning money to "soliodarity groups" (nonfamily co-signers that vouch for eachother and repay together) in small amounts at really low interest rates is a sustainable business model here and in Africa and everywhere else. Just the idea of a bank loaning money to people who can actually use it to better their lives and their families lives and their communities with out collateral ... i mean isn't it better, "more american" than banks loaning money to eachother and then hiring people to work at low wages in bad conditions? So i'm going to keep thinking about that and i'll let you know what i come up with. Ideas are welcome on this one.
So that's fun. In other news i'm looking into the concept of micro-lending, which works really well in devoloping countries like the bank in Bangladesh that loaned out $6.4 billion in 7.2 billion loans, that's right, it's less than $1 each. So, i'm thinking that we have the same issues here and in every capitalist country in the world ($1 might not work here) but loaning money to "soliodarity groups" (nonfamily co-signers that vouch for eachother and repay together) in small amounts at really low interest rates is a sustainable business model here and in Africa and everywhere else. Just the idea of a bank loaning money to people who can actually use it to better their lives and their families lives and their communities with out collateral ... i mean isn't it better, "more american" than banks loaning money to eachother and then hiring people to work at low wages in bad conditions? So i'm going to keep thinking about that and i'll let you know what i come up with. Ideas are welcome on this one.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sell Out
It has been suggested that if i want anyone to read my blog that i would have to be less serious and talk about happy things that people want to read about. At first i dismissed this completely because i refuse to pander to "the market" and give people what they want, i mean i'm not NBC or a Washington politician right? But then i realized that i'm far too serious and that all the world really needs is some entertainment.
So i'm going to give it a try, please leave a comment and let me know how i did because i'm waaay out of my element here.
I think that it's great that JP Morgan/Chase made $140 billion in profit in the third quarter, i really think that even though people don't have jobs and there are millions of people not paying their loan payments and people all over the country are struggling to make ends meet it makes complete sense that a lending institution would make massive profits and furthermore i think that it is a sign that the entire economy must be rebounding and really a beacon of hope for all of us. I completely dismiss any one who says they found a way to cook the books and that sooner or later the other shoe will drop and the financial market will completely crash as a result of it. It just makes perfect sense that a lending institution that is not lending any money or collecting on old loans would have massive profits. It's the American way, like those fine citizens at Enron and MCI Worldcom from days past.
Oh, i'm also super excited about the fine job our elected representatives are doing in congress with the health care legislation. Now that they all agree that health care reform is necessary (where did that come from) they're just hammering out the details. I for one think the public option would be great, i would much rather a bureaucrat tell me that i'm not covered after waiting in a really long line then waiting on hold on the phone and having a minimum wage insurance conglomerate employee tell me. It would just be better don't you think? Also i'm glad that congress is doing such a great job representing the insurance companies and the AMA ... we want to be sure that the people who made our health care system really expensive and profitable while not treating sick people have some input in the new system, we can't change things ... i mean we're going to change it ... no we're not ... yes we are. At least they all agree that we're going to have more taxes, so that's bipartisan.
As far as the war goes i just know that we're winning and that's great too. I'm sure in a matter of months that the Iraqis and Afghan people will be voting for their leaders and peacefully watching while those leaders make decisions that hurt them and help huge corporations get richer just like we do here.
So, Dancing with the Stars is great, isn't it?
I mean, talk shows with audience give aways?
I mean, ESPN Sieben -Spielen auf Deutsch?
I mean, ESPN 9 - Juhydfhdhf Jsdhfjfkf
So, okay, everything is good and only getting better, one of these mornings you're going to wake up and the government and business leaders are going to have this thing fixed, everyone is going to have a job again and free doctors and lower taxes and be safe and they won't mess it up again by being the Mr Magoo of long term vision or incredibly greedy. What ever you do don't try to do anything or point out the failures of the entire system, just be quiet and wait. It's all going to be ok. The people who came up with the idea of fixing an over extended lending system by getting them to lend more money and the people who figure that foreign bombs are better than domestic tyranny have it all under control. I know i'm sleeping good tonight!
So i'm going to give it a try, please leave a comment and let me know how i did because i'm waaay out of my element here.
I think that it's great that JP Morgan/Chase made $140 billion in profit in the third quarter, i really think that even though people don't have jobs and there are millions of people not paying their loan payments and people all over the country are struggling to make ends meet it makes complete sense that a lending institution would make massive profits and furthermore i think that it is a sign that the entire economy must be rebounding and really a beacon of hope for all of us. I completely dismiss any one who says they found a way to cook the books and that sooner or later the other shoe will drop and the financial market will completely crash as a result of it. It just makes perfect sense that a lending institution that is not lending any money or collecting on old loans would have massive profits. It's the American way, like those fine citizens at Enron and MCI Worldcom from days past.
Oh, i'm also super excited about the fine job our elected representatives are doing in congress with the health care legislation. Now that they all agree that health care reform is necessary (where did that come from) they're just hammering out the details. I for one think the public option would be great, i would much rather a bureaucrat tell me that i'm not covered after waiting in a really long line then waiting on hold on the phone and having a minimum wage insurance conglomerate employee tell me. It would just be better don't you think? Also i'm glad that congress is doing such a great job representing the insurance companies and the AMA ... we want to be sure that the people who made our health care system really expensive and profitable while not treating sick people have some input in the new system, we can't change things ... i mean we're going to change it ... no we're not ... yes we are. At least they all agree that we're going to have more taxes, so that's bipartisan.
As far as the war goes i just know that we're winning and that's great too. I'm sure in a matter of months that the Iraqis and Afghan people will be voting for their leaders and peacefully watching while those leaders make decisions that hurt them and help huge corporations get richer just like we do here.
So, Dancing with the Stars is great, isn't it?
I mean, talk shows with audience give aways?
I mean, ESPN Sieben -Spielen auf Deutsch?
I mean, ESPN 9 - Juhydfhdhf Jsdhfjfkf
So, okay, everything is good and only getting better, one of these mornings you're going to wake up and the government and business leaders are going to have this thing fixed, everyone is going to have a job again and free doctors and lower taxes and be safe and they won't mess it up again by being the Mr Magoo of long term vision or incredibly greedy. What ever you do don't try to do anything or point out the failures of the entire system, just be quiet and wait. It's all going to be ok. The people who came up with the idea of fixing an over extended lending system by getting them to lend more money and the people who figure that foreign bombs are better than domestic tyranny have it all under control. I know i'm sleeping good tonight!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
War
There have been plenty of wars in the history of this nation, it began with a war, 29 years later there was a second war with England, remember that one? You know where the Brits invaded and burned Washington D.C., it was 1812. There was the long, drawn out systematic annihilation of the native American population, the countless invasions of Mexico, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, The Cold War, Gulf War One, Bosnia, The War on terror ... and that's not mentioning the times we have militarily "intervened" to protect our "interests" around the world. All told we have spent 66 years officially at war (Source: The New York Public Library Desk Reference, 3rd Edition) and have had 1,315,433 American soldiers killed in military action (Source: U.S. Army Military History Institute) that does not include those wounded or those missing in action. Wounded sounds too cuddly, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of men and women whose physical health will never be the same, amputees, blind, deaf, destroyed bodies. So 1.3 million dead, and we're pretty good at war, i mean we kill more than we get killed, we have the best technology, we can kill you from really far away. In WWI there were 116,00 American soldiers killed out of the total 9,721,937 battlefield deaths (source:Casualties and Medical Statistics, 1931) Almost 10 million soldier killed in 4 years. 10 million! And no army is very accurate, there were 7 million civilian deaths which excludes those who starved to death or died of disease ... so in 4 years in Europe more than 16 million people were shot and blown to pieces, for what? I really picked that one at random, you can do the same thing with any of the wars we've fought, including the one we're fighting now.
I am not for one second trying to say anything against soldiers, i always openly praise them for the sacrifice that they are willing to make. And for the work that they do.
But let us for a second think about the cost (both monetary and personal) of war. We spend billions of dollars a year to maintain and improve our armed forces, we are told that it is necessary for our defence. We pour money into the coffers of military contractors and have no adequate veteran care. When our soldiers come home sick from the battle field our government spends money on lawyers to deny them treatment rather than treat them. When amputees came home from Iraq and we housed in a veterans hospital with black mold growing on the walls we were outraged ... for a minute. The government fired someone and said it was under control and we went back to our lives. It's not the mold that needs to be fixed, it's the entire system.
Our government makes life and death decisions in budget meetings, the sons and daughters of the poor and the people of other countries are "regretable losses" ... makes it sound necessary.
Don't fool yourself, we don't fight for democracy, we don't fight to free oppressed people, your government does not send people to war for any benevolent reason, they do not rain down bombs and cruise missiles to deliver self determination. If we really believed in self determination and democracy and ending oppression do you think we would grant favored nation trading status to the Chinese regime, supply arms to the contras, supply arms to the Indonesian regime, ignored the injustice and brutality in South Africa, ignored the pleas of the UN commandant in Rwanda to help stop genocide as it was happening ... i'm getting carpal tunnel and a headache typing and thinking about this, there's a laundry list of examples, i could keep going, do some research if you want more, it won't be hard to find.
So why do we fight these wars, basically a third of the time we have been a nation we have been at war, and since 1915 we've been in 6 major wars and countless "police actions" (Bosnia and the like) ... Eisenhower told you why, remember, "beware the military industrial complex"? It's about budgets and spending. Brave men and women are sent into battle to satisfy the munitions manufactures of the west. If they aren't fired we do not need any bullets, cruise missiles, guidance systems, bombs. Your government sends people to kill and be killed when there is a gluttonous surplus of bombs. When East Timor was invaded and the people there were being killed the United Stated provided the Indonesians with the means to do it. When Iraq invaded Kuwait it was an action that required us to go to war to stop an unjust invasion. Our government talks about self determination and ignores the pleas of the Kurdish people who face genocide from two directions (Iraq and Turkey) when the Kurds rise up they are tagged as terrorists and villages are destroyed by Turkish pilots flying American attack helicopters, we used them to secure northern Iraq and then left them to fend for themselves unrepresented in the new "self determined" Iraq. Everywhere you look there are contradictions in our foreign policy until you remove the motivations given from podiums and in newspapers and realize that the motivation is money. Not money like you would think, we're not going to invade India to take all the tea, we're going to bomb a mountainous wasteland into rubble to make bomb makers rich. I mean they answer to the stock holders, we can't deny them the capitalist "right" to profit improvement. We did not invade Iraq to take the oil like you hear, we invaded Iraq so that huge multinationals would have a new market to build and sell to in perpetuity.
Do you believe that Bin Laden (or the thousands like him) needs a nation state to plan an attack in this country? An idea cannot be defeated and with every bomb we drop we are sending orphans and widows and widowers to the Taliban and al queda and hamas. "Look the Americans are killing your family, come join us and fight them" it sure must make recruiting easy. We negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine and sit idly by while Israel breaks the agreements that are reached ... and wonder why the Palestinians don't trust us.
What i'm trying to say with all of these schizophrenic examples is that there is no consistency with our foreign policy if you buy any of the reasons that are given at press conferences ... the only explanation for the state of perma-war that we find ourselves must be found outside of foreign policy ... the only thing that makes sense is the same reason that we have fought in the past. Capitalism. We go to war to open up markets, to "create" jobs and profits in the arms business. I hope that's why, because if the leaders of our country really believe that having elections in Afghanistan and Iraq is going to somehow protect us from terrorist attacks we are in a lot of trouble. Bin Laden is a figure head, there are thousands of people who hate this nation that are violent and homicidal and are only lacking means and opportunity, global democracy will not deter them, they are not controlled by governments and are not restricted by porous borders half a world away.
I vote no on war and yes on trying to repair our relationship with the world. It is your government's actions that have bred this hatred of our nation and until they understand that they will not be able to make inroads against those who wish to destroy this country.
I am not for one second trying to say anything against soldiers, i always openly praise them for the sacrifice that they are willing to make. And for the work that they do.
But let us for a second think about the cost (both monetary and personal) of war. We spend billions of dollars a year to maintain and improve our armed forces, we are told that it is necessary for our defence. We pour money into the coffers of military contractors and have no adequate veteran care. When our soldiers come home sick from the battle field our government spends money on lawyers to deny them treatment rather than treat them. When amputees came home from Iraq and we housed in a veterans hospital with black mold growing on the walls we were outraged ... for a minute. The government fired someone and said it was under control and we went back to our lives. It's not the mold that needs to be fixed, it's the entire system.
Our government makes life and death decisions in budget meetings, the sons and daughters of the poor and the people of other countries are "regretable losses" ... makes it sound necessary.
Don't fool yourself, we don't fight for democracy, we don't fight to free oppressed people, your government does not send people to war for any benevolent reason, they do not rain down bombs and cruise missiles to deliver self determination. If we really believed in self determination and democracy and ending oppression do you think we would grant favored nation trading status to the Chinese regime, supply arms to the contras, supply arms to the Indonesian regime, ignored the injustice and brutality in South Africa, ignored the pleas of the UN commandant in Rwanda to help stop genocide as it was happening ... i'm getting carpal tunnel and a headache typing and thinking about this, there's a laundry list of examples, i could keep going, do some research if you want more, it won't be hard to find.
So why do we fight these wars, basically a third of the time we have been a nation we have been at war, and since 1915 we've been in 6 major wars and countless "police actions" (Bosnia and the like) ... Eisenhower told you why, remember, "beware the military industrial complex"? It's about budgets and spending. Brave men and women are sent into battle to satisfy the munitions manufactures of the west. If they aren't fired we do not need any bullets, cruise missiles, guidance systems, bombs. Your government sends people to kill and be killed when there is a gluttonous surplus of bombs. When East Timor was invaded and the people there were being killed the United Stated provided the Indonesians with the means to do it. When Iraq invaded Kuwait it was an action that required us to go to war to stop an unjust invasion. Our government talks about self determination and ignores the pleas of the Kurdish people who face genocide from two directions (Iraq and Turkey) when the Kurds rise up they are tagged as terrorists and villages are destroyed by Turkish pilots flying American attack helicopters, we used them to secure northern Iraq and then left them to fend for themselves unrepresented in the new "self determined" Iraq. Everywhere you look there are contradictions in our foreign policy until you remove the motivations given from podiums and in newspapers and realize that the motivation is money. Not money like you would think, we're not going to invade India to take all the tea, we're going to bomb a mountainous wasteland into rubble to make bomb makers rich. I mean they answer to the stock holders, we can't deny them the capitalist "right" to profit improvement. We did not invade Iraq to take the oil like you hear, we invaded Iraq so that huge multinationals would have a new market to build and sell to in perpetuity.
Do you believe that Bin Laden (or the thousands like him) needs a nation state to plan an attack in this country? An idea cannot be defeated and with every bomb we drop we are sending orphans and widows and widowers to the Taliban and al queda and hamas. "Look the Americans are killing your family, come join us and fight them" it sure must make recruiting easy. We negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine and sit idly by while Israel breaks the agreements that are reached ... and wonder why the Palestinians don't trust us.
What i'm trying to say with all of these schizophrenic examples is that there is no consistency with our foreign policy if you buy any of the reasons that are given at press conferences ... the only explanation for the state of perma-war that we find ourselves must be found outside of foreign policy ... the only thing that makes sense is the same reason that we have fought in the past. Capitalism. We go to war to open up markets, to "create" jobs and profits in the arms business. I hope that's why, because if the leaders of our country really believe that having elections in Afghanistan and Iraq is going to somehow protect us from terrorist attacks we are in a lot of trouble. Bin Laden is a figure head, there are thousands of people who hate this nation that are violent and homicidal and are only lacking means and opportunity, global democracy will not deter them, they are not controlled by governments and are not restricted by porous borders half a world away.
I vote no on war and yes on trying to repair our relationship with the world. It is your government's actions that have bred this hatred of our nation and until they understand that they will not be able to make inroads against those who wish to destroy this country.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Elected to Act Against Us
The headquarters of no major mortgage holding bank is in my county ... are they in your county? And yet the elected and publically provided for Sherriff had no hesitance in evicting my neighbors. There is not some far away sherrif returning the favor, there are no evection orders coming from my county, they arrive here with out of state postmarks and the sherriff gladly tosses his own constituency onto the street.
At what point does commonsence prevail? Where is the sherriff that will say "NO!" and refuse to act in the interest of a distant multinational banking corporation? Is it not bad enough that the federal government has sold us out to the banks and insurance companies? I fear that the only real remedy here is uprising and rebellion. Looking to washington and to the court house for answers to our plight is like asking small pox to go ahead and cure us of itself. We look to the cause of our problem for the solution and we weight in vein while no problems are solved.
At what point does commonsence prevail? Where is the sherriff that will say "NO!" and refuse to act in the interest of a distant multinational banking corporation? Is it not bad enough that the federal government has sold us out to the banks and insurance companies? I fear that the only real remedy here is uprising and rebellion. Looking to washington and to the court house for answers to our plight is like asking small pox to go ahead and cure us of itself. We look to the cause of our problem for the solution and we weight in vein while no problems are solved.
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