The audacity of shamelessness. Empathy-challenged (war criminal) Obama is pretending he cares about military suicides.
I waited a few days to write this to see if my intensely bitter reaction to Obama's last week’s press conference would subside. It has not. In fact reading about the pride some progressives feel about Obama’s shamelessly hypocritical grandstanding sickens me even further.
One of the reasons slot machines in Vegas have so much power to keep you engaged is that just when you’re ready to surrender to the reality of your no-win misery a few coins drop down the slot and you unwisely stay engaged rather than cut your losses and leave.
I hope Obama’s reversal of the longstanding policy not to send condolence letters to families of those in the military who have committed suicide is not one of those “trust me for my humanity” moments to keep his “he’s the lesser of two evils” team Dem apologists inspired and ladling out the thin gruel of “the Democratic Party is for the non-elites” propaganda. Such moments of faux-empathy as we approach election 2012 is to encourage all of us of the bipartisanly abused citizenry to get lost amidst the trees of Obama’s slick faux-humane rhetoric and not see the cold-blooded big picture of what his administration (just like Bush’s before it) is actually doing to destroy human life and/or welfare GLOBALLY.
A week ago Wednesday, golden tongued Obama said:
"As Commander in Chief, I am deeply grateful for the service of all our men and women in uniform, and grieve for the loss of those who suffer from the wounds of war - seen and unseen,"In 2010, there were at least 468 suspected suicides by active duty and reserve troops it has been reported.
Obama cleverly and cowardly doesn’t utter the word “suicide” in his press conference, mind you. Too much reality for Obama.
Why did those suicides happen? Trust he will NEVER initiate a national conversation on the REAL causes of those psychic wounds. Like how maybe participating in a sociopathic killing culture and the trauma of killings of innocent people for corporate exploitation has something to do with THOSE UNSEEN WOUNDS OF WAR!!! Those poor victims of their own hands BEFORE being victims of a massively merciless sociopathic military and corporatist-cronied government leadership!
Also, Obama grandly disclosed he is working on expanding the mental health budget of the military. Rich words coming from a war criminal and someone who sold out serious health care for all Americans so cavalierly to the coporatists. Maybe he and his fellow white- and khaki-collared criminals sitting on piles and piles of shamelessly ill-gotten gains and the corpses of hundreds of thousands of human beings, men, women and children, should partake of that mental health help for the salvation of the rest of us. Mental health care for their profoundly arrested moral developments and colossal ego-manias.
Let me throw my additional disgust in as to Obama’s flaunting that “as-Commander-in-Chief” crap. I always thought that title was primarily “ceremonial,” a checks and balance reminder to the military brass that they did not have the unconditional power to steer the United States to gratuitous war or wars, plural is more appropriate for our time. They have to answer to the executive and legislative branches of government. President Obama instead of upholding that profound responsibility to rein in the military has decided to indulge in gratuitous and deadly, deadly war gaming full throttle. He has toxically enmeshed his administration with the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, as well as handily creating and enabling God knows what web of killer black ops citizens' rights and foreign citizens' rights destroying networks.
Despite the amiable soft spoken manipulations of his press conferences, you must notice Obama throws around his faux-Commander in Chief identity to excess.
Obama who illegally abuses his executive power even to assassinating Americans HE deems guilty abroad, without their due process. Yeah, Obama is not the first to do this undoubtedly, but he is the first to flaunt it in the face of the Constitution and the Americans who voted him in as supposed potential champion of their rights.
Now he throws a few faux-compassionate crumbs to the suicidal victims of the war madness he promotes. Maybe that will bring him some shameless points for reelection.
As for the War in Afghanistan, Obama’s “good” war, Derrick Crowe sums up the amorality and incompetence of the war being waged in Afghanistan:
" ...they're conscripting tax money that we send to D.C. every year for the purpose of building our nation together into policies that we don't support and which kill people for whom we feel no malice. In fact, the strategies and tactics are so ill-conceived that they're putting our money into the hands of insurgents who kill U.S. troops.
According to Bill Van Auken, since the Afghanistan War began, 1,562 American troops have lost their lives there, together with another 874 British, Canadian and other foreign troops. OVER HALF of those deaths took place since Obama has been in office.
Van Auken also reports that in 2010, 171 of all the casualties brought to the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany underwent amputations, 11 percent of the total, while 61 of those wounded soldiers lost more than one limb. The rate of multiple amputations suffered by troops TRIPLED between 2009 and 2010.
Last year on average eight Afghan civilians were killed every single day according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Van Auken goes on to point out.
The majority of Afghanistan people are enraged and demoralized over their US-cultivated government’s corruption, incompetence and gross abuses. Derrick Crowe writes:
“If we were looking for a legitimate government in Afghanistan, it's crystal clear that we backed the wrong horse. Hamid Karzai and his family are neck-deep in any number of corruption scandals, the most glaring of which involves the largest private bank in Afghanistan and a sweeping control fraud scheme that has already resulted in unrest across the country. (That scandal, by the way, is likely to result in a U.S.-taxpayer-funded bank bailout for Kabulbank, according to white-collar crime expert Bill Black.) The Karzai administration is an embarrassment of illegitimacy and cronyism, and the local tentacles of the Kabul cartel are as likely to inspire people to join the insurgency as they are to win over popular support.”
Bill Van Auken offers this insight to the reality of the “hearts and minds” situation among the Afghans:
... After nearly 10 years of occupation, broad sections of the Afghan population who have no connection with the Taliban are seething with hatred for US and other foreign troops, and this is finding deadly expression in attacks by members of the security forces who are supposedly Washington’s allies.
There have been 20 such incidents of men in Afghan security force uniforms turning their weapons on US and other foreign troops since March 2009, four of them taking place this month.
[snip]
These attacks have a devastating effect on the morale of American forces in Afghanistan and call sharply into question the purported strategy of the Pentagon and the Obama administration of preparing a US withdrawal by training Afghan security forces to take the place of the foreign occupation.
This from Seymour Hersch:
The Der Spiegel photographs [kill team victims] also help to explain why the American war in Afghanistan can probably never be “won,” in my view, just as we did not win in Vietnam. Terrible things happen in war, and terrible things are happening every day in Afghanistan, as Americans continue to conduct nightly assassination raids and have escalated the number of bombing sorties. There are also reports of suspected Taliban sympathizers we turn over to Afghan police and soldiers being tortured or worse. This will be a long haul; revenge in Afghan society does not have to come immediately. We could end up not knowing who hit us, or why, a decade or two from now.
These statistics, again from Van Auken: 35,000 US Air Force and Navy warplane close air support “sorties” occurred in 2010. 35,000!!! Bombing and strafing runs set new records with every month. In January 2010 there were 157 attacks. In January 2011 there were 387. The Pentagon is now waging a fullout, “massive” air war! (of course, massive air war means more “collateral damage” a/k/a slaughter of civilians).
As for Congress' abandonment of conscience, Brian Becker writes:
At these moments, the money-gouging corrupt politicians of both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C.—from Tea Party Republicans to most Democratic Party politicians—mainly put aside all differences to join the chorus of the holy condemning the targeted demon as the troops are assembled, the war planes take to the skies and the cruise missiles crash into their targets. They are patriotic to the Empire and realize that their privileged and pampered employment as the “people’s representatives” can be quickly ended if they resolutely defy the war makers and their mass media propaganda machine. They, too, can be demonized if they step too far out of line.
Brian Becker quotes from an April 16th article in the Washington Post about the surge and the counterinsurgency program in Afghanistan. On supposedly negotiating security pacts with Afghanistan tribal elders:
“You can’t just convince them through projects and goodwill,” another Marine officer said. “You have to show up at their door with two companies of Marines and start killing people. That’s how you start convincing them.”
[snip]
The officer was discussing how the U.S. strategy succeeded in the signing of a security pact between elders of the Alikozai area in southern Afghanistan and the U.S.-backed Karzai government.
Many hundreds of young men from the Alikozai area were killed in an onslaught by U.S./NATO troops in months leading up the agreement, according to the Washington Post account.
“We started stacking bodies like cordwood,” said an officer in Sangin, who like other Marines asked for anonymity to speak frankly. “And they came to a point where they said, ‘Holy [expletive], there aren’t that many of us left.’”
The Washington Post is an enthusiastic supporter of the expanding war in Afghanistan. The newspaper editorial policy insists that the war is necessary for an improvement in the lives of average Afghans.
Like other U.S. corporate-owned media outlets, the Post pretends that the U.S. counter-insurgency strategy is aimed at winning the hearts and minds of impoverished Afghan villagers. Its own reports about war strategy, however, reveal that the Pentagon cares as much about Afghan villages as it did about those in Vietnam that were razed and burned by U.S. troops to “save them” from falling under the control of Vietnamese communists.
Finally, the financial cost of the War in Afghanistan according to Derrick Crowe:
The costs of this pile of failure are huge. It costs us $1 million per troop, per year to maintain our occupation of Afghanistan. That's $2 billion every week. Politicians at the federal level are contemplating ugly cuts to social safety nets, while politicians at the state level are already shredding programs that protect people suffering in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In this context, the admonitions from the White House and the Pentagon to be patient while this misbegotten strategy limps along the progress-road-to-nowhere seem perverse. The American people have been patient for roughly a decade now, but that patience has run out.
Is a majority of this population really going to enable Obama to enjoy another war-mongering four years in office? Obama who not only gave the mind-numbingly amoral crimes of the Bush regime a pass but has now accumulated his own critical mass of them.
Obama, a heartless, "overachieving" militarist.
Forgive me for not eating this latest p-r shit and smiling.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
----------------
I agree. The condolence letters are a sickening sham. It's like Stalin sending them out after a purge he instituted. I've been writing off and on for years about the military suicides and the moral costs of the wars. It's the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about.
You can read my last piece here from a couple of days ago.
You can read my last piece here from a couple of days ago.
Harry, excellent article you wrote. Truly sobering. Thank you!
Cindy Sheehan is a parent who gets it! She is in such a tiny minority.
Jingoistic denial. What a horrifying national tragedy. What a toxic matrix of a country.
Cindy Sheehan is a parent who gets it! She is in such a tiny minority.
Jingoistic denial. What a horrifying national tragedy. What a toxic matrix of a country.
Made a LOT more toxic by people like you mouthing the kind of nonsense you offered here.
Get control of your anger...unless you do not mind it controlling you.
Get control of your anger...unless you do not mind it controlling you.
mr. nonsense, frank, loves just hiding from truth - the only thing toxic I see here is that spewing from your diarrhea mouth.
-R-
-R-
I agree that the root(s) need to be investigated, exposed.
Rated.
Rated.
Don't me silly. Of course, President Obama cares about soldiers who commit suicide. We all do. He was basically following the precedents set by other presidents.
The danger to the union lies not on the left, the right, the tea party, moderates or anywhere else, but with sickophants like apisa.
Roosevelt, must have been prescient when he used the word servile (from Merriam Webster: "meanly or cravenly submissive"), even before frank was hatched:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt
- The Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
The lowest of the low is apisa - there is NO lower.
Roosevelt, must have been prescient when he used the word servile (from Merriam Webster: "meanly or cravenly submissive"), even before frank was hatched:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." - Theodore Roosevelt
- The Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918
The lowest of the low is apisa - there is NO lower.
If more than the lip service he gives to most issues, the abominable situation would not persist.
This sites subtitle is: "Vets Helping Vets since 1974"
It states:
"For veterans suffering from PTSD, the average wait time for an initial decision for disability benefits and proper treatment is 161 days, which is plenty of time for a veteran’s life to spiral out of control. It is a cruel injustice to the men and women who served their country, deployed to combat, been exposed to trauma and injury, witnessed deaths, and struggled with the demons of PTSD."
http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org/2011/07/07/hbos-wartorn-and-panel-discussion/
This sites subtitle is: "Vets Helping Vets since 1974"
It states:
"For veterans suffering from PTSD, the average wait time for an initial decision for disability benefits and proper treatment is 161 days, which is plenty of time for a veteran’s life to spiral out of control. It is a cruel injustice to the men and women who served their country, deployed to combat, been exposed to trauma and injury, witnessed deaths, and struggled with the demons of PTSD."
http://www.swords-to-plowshares.org/2011/07/07/hbos-wartorn-and-panel-discussion/
The decisions about foreign policy and just about everything else are made by the elites with little or no sincere participation from the majority. As Eugene Debs once said, “The master class has always brought a war, and the subject class has always fought the battle.” Until we have election reform and media reform that enables the public to control their government the best we can hope for is more sophisticated lip service.
frank aspia, better to have a temper WITH a conscience than a temper used to shoot down the messengers of conscience.
thank you, jonathan.
scanner, the darkest evils get perpetrated because of media-manipulated people who mistake and staunchly defend personality over character. Who tragically conflate the two. Connect the dots and leave the tragic bloc of "Good German"Americans supporting US-sponsored hegemonic genoicides for profit.
markinjapan, will explore your link and thanks once again for your support and sensibility.
zachary, well said!
thank you, jonathan.
scanner, the darkest evils get perpetrated because of media-manipulated people who mistake and staunchly defend personality over character. Who tragically conflate the two. Connect the dots and leave the tragic bloc of "Good German"Americans supporting US-sponsored hegemonic genoicides for profit.
markinjapan, will explore your link and thanks once again for your support and sensibility.
zachary, well said!
Libby, you wrote:
frank aspia, better to have a temper WITH a conscience than a temper used to shoot down the messengers of conscience.
Could be, but I have a lot more trouble thinking you are speaking from conscience on this issue…than I have thinking Barrack Obama doesn’t care about military suicides. If I had to guess…I would guess ulterior motives in your judgement of Obama on this issue a lot sooner than I would guess ulterior motives of Obama’s actions on the issue.
But, for people who let anger control their lives…I say, “Go for it.” Life is good…in fact, life is great! I have a good time every day…and there truly was no anger intended in what I said to you. It was an observation forcefully presented.
frank aspia, better to have a temper WITH a conscience than a temper used to shoot down the messengers of conscience.
Could be, but I have a lot more trouble thinking you are speaking from conscience on this issue…than I have thinking Barrack Obama doesn’t care about military suicides. If I had to guess…I would guess ulterior motives in your judgement of Obama on this issue a lot sooner than I would guess ulterior motives of Obama’s actions on the issue.
But, for people who let anger control their lives…I say, “Go for it.” Life is good…in fact, life is great! I have a good time every day…and there truly was no anger intended in what I said to you. It was an observation forcefully presented.
frank, sorry to misspell your name.
no, drone killer, multiple war mongerer Obama, really cares that the youth of America are cannon fodder or suicides for corporate wars that he promised to end but instead is escalating PULLLLEEEEZZZZE!!!!!
And when he says those committing suicide should not be considered "weak", I find it hard to keep from vomiting. How nice of Gucci-loaftered power and control addict Obama to offer that from his safe perch while setting up their deaths, maimings or mental breakdowns. Really BRAVE of him. Considering the role he is playing in bringing such hell to so many. Yes, he will bring an official box of "bandaids" to the orgy of violence he is promoting and expect to be lauded and will be by an idiot media and lemming viewers.
These young people who were exploited by their country to go against their consciences, given murderous weaponry and put into impossible situations of kill or be killed by a grossly insensitive and anti-humanity game-playing patriarchy to which Obama has eagerly signed on and thrown the entire weight of the administration into escalating US imperialism for profit. We're not even talking now about the massive numbers of innocent people in foreign lands being gratuitously killed for profit.
Multiple deployments leading to PTSD and suicides, no skin off Obama's nose. Academy Award performances that he cares and can so smoothly testify that he cares. And why now? Well, he can get a few morally myopic faux-liberals to praise him for this for the election of 2012. No conscience but plenty of EGO.
Yeah, you have a nice day there, too, Frank. So glad that human suffering doesn't dampen that capacity for you in these United States of Denial. Keep on enabling sociopathy.
I respected you more before your second patronizing message.
no, drone killer, multiple war mongerer Obama, really cares that the youth of America are cannon fodder or suicides for corporate wars that he promised to end but instead is escalating PULLLLEEEEZZZZE!!!!!
And when he says those committing suicide should not be considered "weak", I find it hard to keep from vomiting. How nice of Gucci-loaftered power and control addict Obama to offer that from his safe perch while setting up their deaths, maimings or mental breakdowns. Really BRAVE of him. Considering the role he is playing in bringing such hell to so many. Yes, he will bring an official box of "bandaids" to the orgy of violence he is promoting and expect to be lauded and will be by an idiot media and lemming viewers.
These young people who were exploited by their country to go against their consciences, given murderous weaponry and put into impossible situations of kill or be killed by a grossly insensitive and anti-humanity game-playing patriarchy to which Obama has eagerly signed on and thrown the entire weight of the administration into escalating US imperialism for profit. We're not even talking now about the massive numbers of innocent people in foreign lands being gratuitously killed for profit.
Multiple deployments leading to PTSD and suicides, no skin off Obama's nose. Academy Award performances that he cares and can so smoothly testify that he cares. And why now? Well, he can get a few morally myopic faux-liberals to praise him for this for the election of 2012. No conscience but plenty of EGO.
Yeah, you have a nice day there, too, Frank. So glad that human suffering doesn't dampen that capacity for you in these United States of Denial. Keep on enabling sociopathy.
I respected you more before your second patronizing message.
Libby…
…I don’t think you respected me after my first remarks…and, frankly, I do not care if you respect me now. I respect me…and when all is said and done, that is what counts most.
I am beginning to wonder if you respect yourself…or if you are going to continue this orgy of hatred, recrimination and anger.
Obama is a man trying to do a difficult job. You may not agree with all of his decisions; you may not agree with any of them, but he has the job to make the decisions and he does. I doubt seriously that anyone right now would be able to make decisions in the areas in which he works that would please enough of the population to be considered a majority.
No matter what decisions are made these days, a significant portion of the people not only disagrees with it, they go ape…and condemn the decision as though it were something from the depths of Hell. A bit of balance; a bit of understanding; a bit of rational, logical consideration might make our national predicament a lot less “toxic.”
Your scorn for him is misplaced…and your public display of it does not do you justice. You can finally grasp that…or simply discharge it as nonsense. Matters not to me. I will still enjoy life as best I can…and hope that things eventually get better for you.
…I don’t think you respected me after my first remarks…and, frankly, I do not care if you respect me now. I respect me…and when all is said and done, that is what counts most.
I am beginning to wonder if you respect yourself…or if you are going to continue this orgy of hatred, recrimination and anger.
Obama is a man trying to do a difficult job. You may not agree with all of his decisions; you may not agree with any of them, but he has the job to make the decisions and he does. I doubt seriously that anyone right now would be able to make decisions in the areas in which he works that would please enough of the population to be considered a majority.
No matter what decisions are made these days, a significant portion of the people not only disagrees with it, they go ape…and condemn the decision as though it were something from the depths of Hell. A bit of balance; a bit of understanding; a bit of rational, logical consideration might make our national predicament a lot less “toxic.”
Your scorn for him is misplaced…and your public display of it does not do you justice. You can finally grasp that…or simply discharge it as nonsense. Matters not to me. I will still enjoy life as best I can…and hope that things eventually get better for you.
patronize away, frank. we live in an anti-feeling culture. denial comes from the rejection of authentic feelings.
Obama is a messed up guy, wounded, and I would feel sorrier for him if he didn't have the enormous power to bring tragedy to so many lives and if he didn't have this teflony personality thing helping him out like Reagan did.
I am forgetting who said if you are not outraged you are not paying attention.
I am funny I guess. I take it personally when the constitution and the bill of rights are circling the proverbial bowl.
But you certainly did your part today for the anti-feeling volunteer police. I bet you never read my blog all the way through or maybe you did and don't care about the incompetence and amorality of the Afghan War.
And poor Obama, just stuck there. "Look how hard I am trying!" That is a game codependents and alcoholics play. And con men.
Denial, a raging river going through the US right now. How sad.
Obama is a messed up guy, wounded, and I would feel sorrier for him if he didn't have the enormous power to bring tragedy to so many lives and if he didn't have this teflony personality thing helping him out like Reagan did.
I am forgetting who said if you are not outraged you are not paying attention.
I am funny I guess. I take it personally when the constitution and the bill of rights are circling the proverbial bowl.
But you certainly did your part today for the anti-feeling volunteer police. I bet you never read my blog all the way through or maybe you did and don't care about the incompetence and amorality of the Afghan War.
And poor Obama, just stuck there. "Look how hard I am trying!" That is a game codependents and alcoholics play. And con men.
Denial, a raging river going through the US right now. How sad.
ECHO:
A bit of balance; a bit of understanding; a bit of rational, logical consideration might make our national predicament a lot less “toxic.”
A bit of balance; a bit of understanding; a bit of rational, logical consideration might make our national predicament a lot less “toxic.”
"Nothing to excess, including moderation." St. Francis of Assisi
The only balance frank has is when leaning on a golf club to keep from falling into a drunken stupor.
As for understanding, he's not understood a thing since birth.
Rational, logic - forget about it.
He is, and will always, be nothing but apisa (sh*t)
As for understanding, he's not understood a thing since birth.
Rational, logic - forget about it.
He is, and will always, be nothing but apisa (sh*t)
Libby ~ How smoothly these old boys and girls are making the shift... from the false idealism and pop cynicism of the last decade, to the new and genuine cynicism and pop idealism of their current course.
The post stripped unceremoniously from the modern exposing the linguistic, political and economic sham of an era, and a woefully misguided generation.
The post stripped unceremoniously from the modern exposing the linguistic, political and economic sham of an era, and a woefully misguided generation.
markinjapan, from the ploughshares sites:
"The National Institute of Mental Health research indicates that suicide has surpassed combat as a cause of mortality in the military. Additionally, the Department of Defense (DoD) reports show a 7000% increase in hospitalization of service members for suicidal ideologies over the past five years. Startling statistics, paired with a long overdue recognition of the mental health injuries suffered during combat, now have the DoD referring to the problem of suicide in its ranks as an epidemic.
Swords to Plowshares welcomes the current change in policy and applauds the tireless efforts of Tragedy Assistance for Survivors(TAPS) to keep this issue in the forefront. We also encourage the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to closely collaborate in an attempt to stem the future loss of combat veterans to suicide.
Department of Veterans Affairs statistics show service members who are in need of mental health services are not being effectively identified before separation. Reports indicate that over 40% of Post 9/11 service members who were deployed in a combat zone, and who have since separated from the military, experience PTSD, or suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury which had previously gone unreported. Both are very serious mental health conditions that may be diagnosed and treated by the VA, but often times are misdiagnosed, or go untreated for years before the veteran seeks health services. Unfortunately, receiving medical care for a failed suicide attempt is often the first time the underlying issues are identified and addressed."
The lack of empathy among the high functioning sociopaths who have power over life and death and mental and physical welfare of so many is so disgusting. Writing a letter of condolence yes should happen but when you look at the travesty of the military killing machine and revolving door deployments and no humane rules of engagement in war, and gratuitous wars, it is awesome. Shocking and awesome.
I am glad to find kindred spirits about Obama on this site though I know there are many who will join Frank in finding my perspective harsh. I feel like so many people when Obama was breaking so many promises and proving more and more what Glen Ford calls the front man for oligarchs they were, I assumed, going to have to go like me through the five stages of grief about Obama.
But apparently not everyone made that trip, or ever got through them. They are either stuck in the "bargaining stage" still, because facing reality would also include realizing the vast betrayal of the Democratic Party and how hopeless it is. Getting Bush creepoids out of the way really revealed that the Dems were serving the corporate pimps just as much and were so cronied up and immersed in corruption.
But like in the 12 step programs recovery doesn't happen until there is an acknowledgment of just how unmanageable things are and acceptance of hitting bottom. What the bottom really is. People who can't get that Obama is racing us all to even deeper bottoms are dooming us for more pain and punishment. More wars, more defiance of our constitutional rights, more criminalizing of dissidents daring to criticize Obama, more punishment of whistleblowers trying to restore law and justice.
I see Obama and the military as willfully trying to trigger Bradley Manning to commit suicide, speaking of suicide and the horrible angles of Obama's hypocrisy, or causing Manning a severe mental collapse with the harsh conditions he has been undergoing, and that ritualized nudity torture was obscene, along with Obama's declaring him guilty so unlawfully. No due process and no reasonableness. Just patriarchal cronyism.
Immunity for the buddies no matter what those rabid rat bastards have done and for the whistleblowers and dissidents, they get punished or ignored at best.
You have to have your eyes tightly closed in this society not to get the criminality and corruption that Obama's "looking forward" decision has nurtured further. Obama has no moral compass. All style, no substance. Impression management with the media. Real human beings. Doesn't give a serious sh*t.
Inverted, thanks for your comments. They made me think of Charles Ferguson, Inside Job, who recently told Tavis Smiley that he thought Obama, who to me is the anti-MLK and the anti-JFK, though he won pretending he was channeling both, had wiped out political idealism in America for at least one or two generations. Very astute. We are in a dark spiritual age.
Obama and Oprah and the media ... pied pipers you want to believe have a moral compass and altruistic commitment to the average Americans. No. Careerism, cronyism, opportunity, self-aggrandizement, mendacity. Gotta tell you, I have a hard time forgiving Oprah. Is she so lost to cronyism and her own rich life style she doesn't get what Obama is doing to non-elite human beings, white and black? Apparently not.
History won't be kind to Obama. I see him as being painted as a Judas figure. I really do.
But they call it gangster capitalism and the Congress for the most part have sold us out, too. We needed a leader with a heart and soul. Not Obama.
And the war profiteering is obscene. Absolutely obscene along with the indifference of the powers we are saddled with to massive death and suffering by the military grunts and their innocent targets.
And then there is Obama unleashing all those drones. How can the apologists reckon with that?
"The National Institute of Mental Health research indicates that suicide has surpassed combat as a cause of mortality in the military. Additionally, the Department of Defense (DoD) reports show a 7000% increase in hospitalization of service members for suicidal ideologies over the past five years. Startling statistics, paired with a long overdue recognition of the mental health injuries suffered during combat, now have the DoD referring to the problem of suicide in its ranks as an epidemic.
Swords to Plowshares welcomes the current change in policy and applauds the tireless efforts of Tragedy Assistance for Survivors(TAPS) to keep this issue in the forefront. We also encourage the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to closely collaborate in an attempt to stem the future loss of combat veterans to suicide.
Department of Veterans Affairs statistics show service members who are in need of mental health services are not being effectively identified before separation. Reports indicate that over 40% of Post 9/11 service members who were deployed in a combat zone, and who have since separated from the military, experience PTSD, or suffer from a Traumatic Brain Injury which had previously gone unreported. Both are very serious mental health conditions that may be diagnosed and treated by the VA, but often times are misdiagnosed, or go untreated for years before the veteran seeks health services. Unfortunately, receiving medical care for a failed suicide attempt is often the first time the underlying issues are identified and addressed."
The lack of empathy among the high functioning sociopaths who have power over life and death and mental and physical welfare of so many is so disgusting. Writing a letter of condolence yes should happen but when you look at the travesty of the military killing machine and revolving door deployments and no humane rules of engagement in war, and gratuitous wars, it is awesome. Shocking and awesome.
I am glad to find kindred spirits about Obama on this site though I know there are many who will join Frank in finding my perspective harsh. I feel like so many people when Obama was breaking so many promises and proving more and more what Glen Ford calls the front man for oligarchs they were, I assumed, going to have to go like me through the five stages of grief about Obama.
But apparently not everyone made that trip, or ever got through them. They are either stuck in the "bargaining stage" still, because facing reality would also include realizing the vast betrayal of the Democratic Party and how hopeless it is. Getting Bush creepoids out of the way really revealed that the Dems were serving the corporate pimps just as much and were so cronied up and immersed in corruption.
But like in the 12 step programs recovery doesn't happen until there is an acknowledgment of just how unmanageable things are and acceptance of hitting bottom. What the bottom really is. People who can't get that Obama is racing us all to even deeper bottoms are dooming us for more pain and punishment. More wars, more defiance of our constitutional rights, more criminalizing of dissidents daring to criticize Obama, more punishment of whistleblowers trying to restore law and justice.
I see Obama and the military as willfully trying to trigger Bradley Manning to commit suicide, speaking of suicide and the horrible angles of Obama's hypocrisy, or causing Manning a severe mental collapse with the harsh conditions he has been undergoing, and that ritualized nudity torture was obscene, along with Obama's declaring him guilty so unlawfully. No due process and no reasonableness. Just patriarchal cronyism.
Immunity for the buddies no matter what those rabid rat bastards have done and for the whistleblowers and dissidents, they get punished or ignored at best.
You have to have your eyes tightly closed in this society not to get the criminality and corruption that Obama's "looking forward" decision has nurtured further. Obama has no moral compass. All style, no substance. Impression management with the media. Real human beings. Doesn't give a serious sh*t.
Inverted, thanks for your comments. They made me think of Charles Ferguson, Inside Job, who recently told Tavis Smiley that he thought Obama, who to me is the anti-MLK and the anti-JFK, though he won pretending he was channeling both, had wiped out political idealism in America for at least one or two generations. Very astute. We are in a dark spiritual age.
Obama and Oprah and the media ... pied pipers you want to believe have a moral compass and altruistic commitment to the average Americans. No. Careerism, cronyism, opportunity, self-aggrandizement, mendacity. Gotta tell you, I have a hard time forgiving Oprah. Is she so lost to cronyism and her own rich life style she doesn't get what Obama is doing to non-elite human beings, white and black? Apparently not.
History won't be kind to Obama. I see him as being painted as a Judas figure. I really do.
But they call it gangster capitalism and the Congress for the most part have sold us out, too. We needed a leader with a heart and soul. Not Obama.
And the war profiteering is obscene. Absolutely obscene along with the indifference of the powers we are saddled with to massive death and suffering by the military grunts and their innocent targets.
And then there is Obama unleashing all those drones. How can the apologists reckon with that?
libbyliberalnyc, if I could rate Your last comment, I would. It is so all-encompassing.
I live on a tiny island where forty american military bases occupy ~25% of the land area for the last sixty-five+ years.
I knew something was phony when obama caved on FISA, but for some unfathomable reason, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
I worked countless hours, on the only English language board, which is militarily dominated,here, convincing them not to vote for mcsame.
I will regret my actions as long as I live.
If G-d forbid, frank were to live another hundred years, the phrase silence IS complicity would be meaningless to him. In place of silence, he boastfully defends immoral actions at whatever opportunity he finds.
Another concept the resident clown could never understand would be that expediency is no excuse for immorality.
Thanks for Your courageous and unyielding stand.
I live on a tiny island where forty american military bases occupy ~25% of the land area for the last sixty-five+ years.
I knew something was phony when obama caved on FISA, but for some unfathomable reason, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
I worked countless hours, on the only English language board, which is militarily dominated,here, convincing them not to vote for mcsame.
I will regret my actions as long as I live.
If G-d forbid, frank were to live another hundred years, the phrase silence IS complicity would be meaningless to him. In place of silence, he boastfully defends immoral actions at whatever opportunity he finds.
Another concept the resident clown could never understand would be that expediency is no excuse for immorality.
Thanks for Your courageous and unyielding stand.
thanks, mark. as I said I appreciate your sensibility about Obama. I do believe in the theory of the 100 monkeys. Once 100 monkeys are convinced of something the whole monkey tribe embraces that view.
I think eventually 100 monkeys in America will wake up to the evil we as a nation are perpetrating. We are the Good Germans of the Holocaust. When "good people" do nothing massive evil prevails. When people think, "Well, it could be worse. It could be me." And a sense of empathy cannot significantly open their hearts the dark spiritual age continues.
The 100th monkey during the Viet Nam years was Walter Cronkite I believe and I don't think that is my theory though I can't remember where I read or heard it. That was a serious and powerful 100th monkey to have wake up and tell the monkey nation, this is WRONG. Too bad 14 million Asians had been killed or displaced by that time. Too bad Kissinger kept the war going into the Nixon years even though Johnson did not seek a second term because of the rage about the war. The hubris of the sociopaths in power.
And Kissinger is writing his books and being treated as a respected celeb and advising another generation of cold-hearted war hawks. Hypocritical so that they are calling the irrational except for oil and to destroy the growing independence of smaller nations Libyan war a HUMANITARIAN war. That is the same hypocrisy that makes Obama posture that he cares for dying vets, either dying in battle or via suicide. But, hell of a nice guy, Obama. Just look at that smile and those seductive words and that seductive voice and the media respects him, right?
Character v. personality. "Nice guy" Obama. Throw his actual actions and decisions in the background and keep your eye on the engaging smile and keep trusting the Oprahs and the corporate media who reassure you he AND we are the "good guys."
Okay, mark, now this part is hard. I also need to ask, "WTF is going on with you and Frank Apisa?" I mean, I appreciate you defending me within the comments above but you going personal with him like that made me uncomfortable and when I clicked to make you one of my favorites there you are taking Frank on in an entire blog title. It really made me uneasy. "Principles above personalities?" I don't think Frank is "fair game" as much as the Obamas and whomever. I know we are spilling our hearts and minds here but it seems like some boundary crossing has happened. Maybe he did it to you, but you seem to be going inappropriately far with him.
I want us to have a bond here, but I gotta say that in all honesty. We don't need personal sniping at our disagree-ers. Our stance is for decency. We want to honor good and justice and sanity. Yeah, I know sometimes I blurt out something angry in a comment and I am no angel. But this Frank thing with you seems to have taken on a life of its own and sabotages your credibility here making him the "underdog."
Frank was condescending to me but so be it. I appreciated the exchange we had nonetheless. It made me rally my thoughts and feelings all the more. Showed me how many people undoubtedly think and feel and gave me the opportunity to respond to that perspective. You defending my beliefs felt good, you personally attacking and mocking Frank made me more uncomfortable than appreciative.
Mark, I am glad we bonded and I hope what I just said doesn't dampen that mutuality.
I think eventually 100 monkeys in America will wake up to the evil we as a nation are perpetrating. We are the Good Germans of the Holocaust. When "good people" do nothing massive evil prevails. When people think, "Well, it could be worse. It could be me." And a sense of empathy cannot significantly open their hearts the dark spiritual age continues.
The 100th monkey during the Viet Nam years was Walter Cronkite I believe and I don't think that is my theory though I can't remember where I read or heard it. That was a serious and powerful 100th monkey to have wake up and tell the monkey nation, this is WRONG. Too bad 14 million Asians had been killed or displaced by that time. Too bad Kissinger kept the war going into the Nixon years even though Johnson did not seek a second term because of the rage about the war. The hubris of the sociopaths in power.
And Kissinger is writing his books and being treated as a respected celeb and advising another generation of cold-hearted war hawks. Hypocritical so that they are calling the irrational except for oil and to destroy the growing independence of smaller nations Libyan war a HUMANITARIAN war. That is the same hypocrisy that makes Obama posture that he cares for dying vets, either dying in battle or via suicide. But, hell of a nice guy, Obama. Just look at that smile and those seductive words and that seductive voice and the media respects him, right?
Character v. personality. "Nice guy" Obama. Throw his actual actions and decisions in the background and keep your eye on the engaging smile and keep trusting the Oprahs and the corporate media who reassure you he AND we are the "good guys."
Okay, mark, now this part is hard. I also need to ask, "WTF is going on with you and Frank Apisa?" I mean, I appreciate you defending me within the comments above but you going personal with him like that made me uncomfortable and when I clicked to make you one of my favorites there you are taking Frank on in an entire blog title. It really made me uneasy. "Principles above personalities?" I don't think Frank is "fair game" as much as the Obamas and whomever. I know we are spilling our hearts and minds here but it seems like some boundary crossing has happened. Maybe he did it to you, but you seem to be going inappropriately far with him.
I want us to have a bond here, but I gotta say that in all honesty. We don't need personal sniping at our disagree-ers. Our stance is for decency. We want to honor good and justice and sanity. Yeah, I know sometimes I blurt out something angry in a comment and I am no angel. But this Frank thing with you seems to have taken on a life of its own and sabotages your credibility here making him the "underdog."
Frank was condescending to me but so be it. I appreciated the exchange we had nonetheless. It made me rally my thoughts and feelings all the more. Showed me how many people undoubtedly think and feel and gave me the opportunity to respond to that perspective. You defending my beliefs felt good, you personally attacking and mocking Frank made me more uncomfortable than appreciative.
Mark, I am glad we bonded and I hope what I just said doesn't dampen that mutuality.
Sooooo
Great rant about more of the "problems". What practical, realistic solutions do you have for us?
And no, as I've said elsewhere, I do NOT think "love & hugs" falls into that category. (Although it's be great if it would)
Who should be President?
Why?
What policies can you guarantee they'd follow?
How?
Without those answers all this is just picking at the scabs on our already wounded selves. I don't know about you but I personally do not need another "well documented, researched, and cited" blog on what is, was, or will be wrong with the Dems or the Repubs. Nor do I need 'blather' answers that could never possibly happen in real life such as "make the rich pay all their wealth in taxes and give everyone else a free ride." (OK, an exaggeration; but you know what I mean).
Name your game and tell us the rules. Let's see if we think it a better game than the one we are presently playing at.
(ᴼᴥ̃)
.
Great rant about more of the "problems". What practical, realistic solutions do you have for us?
And no, as I've said elsewhere, I do NOT think "love & hugs" falls into that category. (Although it's be great if it would)
Who should be President?
Why?
What policies can you guarantee they'd follow?
How?
Without those answers all this is just picking at the scabs on our already wounded selves. I don't know about you but I personally do not need another "well documented, researched, and cited" blog on what is, was, or will be wrong with the Dems or the Repubs. Nor do I need 'blather' answers that could never possibly happen in real life such as "make the rich pay all their wealth in taxes and give everyone else a free ride." (OK, an exaggeration; but you know what I mean).
Name your game and tell us the rules. Let's see if we think it a better game than the one we are presently playing at.
(ᴼᴥ̃)
.
Oh yeah. markinjapan jumping on frank looks a lot like you calling Obama a war criminal from this angle.
.
.
So, skypixieo, the three A's -- awareness, acceptance, action. My first practical solution is to shed the illusions about Obama. Don't let him play Lucy and the football yet again! Awareness has to happen before anything else can. I want people to get out of the Obama fog and mirrors and smoke machine. And that means the Dem machine.
Maybe we can have a US spring! God, Tunisia and Egypt are putting us to shame, though the rat bastards coalition will sabotage their momentum as best they can. I think maybe we should ask the UN to get a responsibility to protect order on the US citizenry.
I don't get the loves and hugs reference, sorry.
Who should be President?
Not Obama. I think Dems and everyone should PLEDGE not to vote for him. Dump Obama? I want him impeached. Bush should have been. Now he should be.
The Dem Party is counting on the "lesser evil" triangulation game. I don't like being held hostage by manipulative consultant tools like Axelrod and sadistic parasites like Rahm Emmanuel, et al.
I have been wearing a black arm band for three years now. I put it on when I recognized with horror what heart of darkness the Bush regime had sunk too especially with the torture program and I trusted I would wear it a few weeks until Obama took action.
Obama's clear moral compasslessness re torture and the wars and Bush criminal immunity. Again, I thought he was slow taking care of moral business and then I realized he was amoral. Don't look at his smile. Look at all he has done.
I joined the Green Party and worked for them the last election. They have principles. I honor their values. I also support World Can't Wait, an anti-war organization, a good one, when I can. I am I guess lucky to have a hanging from a thread corporate job that has taken on sweatshop proportions and is not secure. I empathize with how hard it is to be an active citizen and support oneself and also not be emotionally demoralized in these gratuitously ROTTEN times.
I worked for John Edwards and believed in his populist stance. Yes, I am disappointed in Edwards. I believe there must be an honest representative somewhere in the world who doesn't also find the need to screw his intern, tweet pix of his penis, or cheat on his dying wife. But give me them as opposed to mass war criminal front man for oligarchs Obama. But still .... tired of gamesmanship and we should be calling out the bottom feeders of both parties.
I believed in Ralph Nader and his integrity. There are Ralph Nader types out there. They just don't crony up. To fellow politicians. To countries like Israel.
It is not all about money. Look at how the Afghans with their will and stubbornness won't let the US steal their country for profit. How many have we killed and are still killing and how many of our soldiers are dying for the profit of the rat bastards and Washington egomaniacs and unconditional cronies of Israel. Many have lost their lives but there is spirit there not to let the killer war machine take them without a fight. We should be taken notes from as citizens without borders, because the gangster capitalists have captured the world.
Right now I am working on creating a curriculum workshop for teens and young voters about US political history so that the younger generation can have some role models and learn about principles and issues at least on a local and non-corrupt-media level-- to learn about the constitution and what it should be IF ENFORCED AND HONORED and to be able to explore issues and not be handed propaganda so easily by lying politicians and the disinforming media. To give them a working vocabulary and tools for fighting to get democracy back. Yes, I am starting with what I can give at the moment. One workshop at a time. Maybe it will grow, maybe not but I am being proactive.
I also blog my feelings and my perspective. It is appreciated by some, not appreciated by many, but I answer to my own conscience.
Re MarkinJapan, maybe you have a point, though it does seem to be between Mark and me not you and me. And to me Obama is fair game, he presumed to take on the job of US leader and is to me all I have repeated above. And Frank Apsia last I heard has not managed to wage any wars, ordered drone and assassination missions, sold out my insurance care to big pharma and the medical industrial complex, and a whole scandals list I can get back to you with. But if he works for the CIA and is involved with black ops, then I was premature for sure. He is enabler of sociopathy and that is hard to forgive him and anyone else for and deserves to be called out on that. The personal stuff sounded beneath Mark imHo.
I was being honest with Mark. I'd rather be an honest communicator with him, even if in my own denial, than an "anything is okay" so long as you are my crony crony with him. We shall see. Cronyism is part of what is so rotten these days. Crony banksters, crony politicians, crony war criminals, crony war criminal countries, even over-cronied up bloggers.
Things are grim in America. Denial of the majority of the population is not helping. Calling out the gamesmen and demanding statesmen is important. I want to live in the solution not the problem. When good people do nothing evil prevails Burke said. Evil is laziness to the nth degree Scott Peck said. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness Fulton Sheen said. I am lighting my candles, and doing some cursing, too. When the cursing fits, use it!
With a quick sweep of his pen Obama could issue an executive order to establish a jobs promoting WPA program. He could have put medicare for all on the table. He could have been serious about peace with Israel and Palestine. He could be waging peace not wars.
But ... wait ... Obama has to lick his finger and put it up to the winds of opportunity and self-aggrandizement. Ever obsequious to the rat bastards AND the rabid rat bastards.
Go ahead and defend Obama to me. Please. Convince me he is not the amoral man I believe he is. What has he done for us lately? Letters to the survivors of suicides that shouldn't have happened? When snarky Jon Stewart came out with his "civility" stuff I felt sold out. Civility for the sake of being polite to killing sociopaths.
Thanks for the interest and have a nice Frank Apsia day! It actually sounded rather nice.
libby
Maybe we can have a US spring! God, Tunisia and Egypt are putting us to shame, though the rat bastards coalition will sabotage their momentum as best they can. I think maybe we should ask the UN to get a responsibility to protect order on the US citizenry.
I don't get the loves and hugs reference, sorry.
Who should be President?
Not Obama. I think Dems and everyone should PLEDGE not to vote for him. Dump Obama? I want him impeached. Bush should have been. Now he should be.
The Dem Party is counting on the "lesser evil" triangulation game. I don't like being held hostage by manipulative consultant tools like Axelrod and sadistic parasites like Rahm Emmanuel, et al.
I have been wearing a black arm band for three years now. I put it on when I recognized with horror what heart of darkness the Bush regime had sunk too especially with the torture program and I trusted I would wear it a few weeks until Obama took action.
Obama's clear moral compasslessness re torture and the wars and Bush criminal immunity. Again, I thought he was slow taking care of moral business and then I realized he was amoral. Don't look at his smile. Look at all he has done.
I joined the Green Party and worked for them the last election. They have principles. I honor their values. I also support World Can't Wait, an anti-war organization, a good one, when I can. I am I guess lucky to have a hanging from a thread corporate job that has taken on sweatshop proportions and is not secure. I empathize with how hard it is to be an active citizen and support oneself and also not be emotionally demoralized in these gratuitously ROTTEN times.
I worked for John Edwards and believed in his populist stance. Yes, I am disappointed in Edwards. I believe there must be an honest representative somewhere in the world who doesn't also find the need to screw his intern, tweet pix of his penis, or cheat on his dying wife. But give me them as opposed to mass war criminal front man for oligarchs Obama. But still .... tired of gamesmanship and we should be calling out the bottom feeders of both parties.
I believed in Ralph Nader and his integrity. There are Ralph Nader types out there. They just don't crony up. To fellow politicians. To countries like Israel.
It is not all about money. Look at how the Afghans with their will and stubbornness won't let the US steal their country for profit. How many have we killed and are still killing and how many of our soldiers are dying for the profit of the rat bastards and Washington egomaniacs and unconditional cronies of Israel. Many have lost their lives but there is spirit there not to let the killer war machine take them without a fight. We should be taken notes from as citizens without borders, because the gangster capitalists have captured the world.
Right now I am working on creating a curriculum workshop for teens and young voters about US political history so that the younger generation can have some role models and learn about principles and issues at least on a local and non-corrupt-media level-- to learn about the constitution and what it should be IF ENFORCED AND HONORED and to be able to explore issues and not be handed propaganda so easily by lying politicians and the disinforming media. To give them a working vocabulary and tools for fighting to get democracy back. Yes, I am starting with what I can give at the moment. One workshop at a time. Maybe it will grow, maybe not but I am being proactive.
I also blog my feelings and my perspective. It is appreciated by some, not appreciated by many, but I answer to my own conscience.
Re MarkinJapan, maybe you have a point, though it does seem to be between Mark and me not you and me. And to me Obama is fair game, he presumed to take on the job of US leader and is to me all I have repeated above. And Frank Apsia last I heard has not managed to wage any wars, ordered drone and assassination missions, sold out my insurance care to big pharma and the medical industrial complex, and a whole scandals list I can get back to you with. But if he works for the CIA and is involved with black ops, then I was premature for sure. He is enabler of sociopathy and that is hard to forgive him and anyone else for and deserves to be called out on that. The personal stuff sounded beneath Mark imHo.
I was being honest with Mark. I'd rather be an honest communicator with him, even if in my own denial, than an "anything is okay" so long as you are my crony crony with him. We shall see. Cronyism is part of what is so rotten these days. Crony banksters, crony politicians, crony war criminals, crony war criminal countries, even over-cronied up bloggers.
Things are grim in America. Denial of the majority of the population is not helping. Calling out the gamesmen and demanding statesmen is important. I want to live in the solution not the problem. When good people do nothing evil prevails Burke said. Evil is laziness to the nth degree Scott Peck said. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness Fulton Sheen said. I am lighting my candles, and doing some cursing, too. When the cursing fits, use it!
With a quick sweep of his pen Obama could issue an executive order to establish a jobs promoting WPA program. He could have put medicare for all on the table. He could have been serious about peace with Israel and Palestine. He could be waging peace not wars.
But ... wait ... Obama has to lick his finger and put it up to the winds of opportunity and self-aggrandizement. Ever obsequious to the rat bastards AND the rabid rat bastards.
Go ahead and defend Obama to me. Please. Convince me he is not the amoral man I believe he is. What has he done for us lately? Letters to the survivors of suicides that shouldn't have happened? When snarky Jon Stewart came out with his "civility" stuff I felt sold out. Civility for the sake of being polite to killing sociopaths.
Thanks for the interest and have a nice Frank Apsia day! It actually sounded rather nice.
libby
Ah libby, libby, libby......
You're so close. You run right up to it then skitter off to one side.
It is NOT a matter of one man, or even a whole bunch of men, "corrupting a fine system". It is the system that's broken. We Canucks have basically the same system - it's broken here too.... in the same ways, for the same reasons.
Obama - any politician - is nothing more that an ego wrapped up in self aggrandizement, baked in arrogance and served with a you're-foolin'-yerself sauce to a public that is largely made up of sheeple.
Why point your guns at Obama? Or even at Dubya? It ain't the individual figurehead - it's the system. Neither is it any particular political party - it's the party system. Always, always, always - it's the system!
In your country, as in mine, the individual politicians are owned by the political parties; the political parties are owned by the real powers - the big money boys. The boys we never get to vote for. Not that voting for them would help because elections on the scale of a modern nation are nothing more than an advertising contest. We, the voters, know absolutely nothing of these candidates - as proven by the "surprises" that keep popping up in regard to them.
Your constitution, outdated as it is, has been circumvented so often it looks like a maypole in the middle of a children's May-day dance. Our similar documents of high-sounding words does too.
But you know all this. Your reply to me did not answer my questions. You went on with more of what is wrong and fine sounding ideas of bits and pieces of what we ought to have.
Fact: We don't have that
Fact: We will never have that if we use the same broken tool (unworkable system) to try to run our nation(s).
Fact: We have never, in spite of patches galore, been able to "fix" this broken tool.
Fact: We need a properly working system to do the job we ask of a system; keeping our nations' people alive and making progress - however we decide to define "progress".
Fact: That "properly working system" does not exist anywhere in the world today, nor has it ever existed in this world.
Fact: If we want such a system we need to invent it. From scratch. Using our knowledge and experience with the present one and all its predecessors.
I think that this is well within our capability. I think this because I, with no real knowledge of such things, over 40 years ago invented such a system. It probably has little real socio/economic/political value but it has one extremely important value - it shows that it is POSSIBLE to think outside the box. It IS possible to conceive of and design other systems, even capitalist systems, that would meet our needs better than the present greed-capitalism one does. NOT a "perfect" system - just a better one - one step at a time, please.
We CAN do this once we see the need for it. We have the capability. We have the experience. We have the knowledge. We can decide what we want our future society to look like - what we want it to do for the citizens (our children & grandchildren) of the day. Once we have some idea of what we want (something we never before decided on), we can get on with designing a system that will do that.
Until we have some clear idea of what we want our nation to look like and the job its system must do for its citizens, we are just treading water. We cannot work toward a goal that we don't have. All the 'movement' in the world will not amount to progress until we know what our objectives are. Once we have that nailed down we can measure "progress" by answering the question, "are we getting closer to our goals or not?"
-------------------------------------------------------
The reference to "hugs & love" derives from the "solutions" to our difficulties that I encounter so often.
The reference to markinjapan and frank was meant only to point out that you are doing to Obama what mark is doing to frank - name calling. In my mind your reasons are no more honourable than mark's or frank's. Obama is a front man, a puppet. Get off his case. If it weren't him it would just be another puppet. Who cares which one of them it is. Both parties have a box-full of them, all alike; all obedient.
G'mornin' to ya!
PS
Skim through some of my blogs to see what my "designed system" might look like.
.
You're so close. You run right up to it then skitter off to one side.
It is NOT a matter of one man, or even a whole bunch of men, "corrupting a fine system". It is the system that's broken. We Canucks have basically the same system - it's broken here too.... in the same ways, for the same reasons.
Obama - any politician - is nothing more that an ego wrapped up in self aggrandizement, baked in arrogance and served with a you're-foolin'-yerself sauce to a public that is largely made up of sheeple.
Why point your guns at Obama? Or even at Dubya? It ain't the individual figurehead - it's the system. Neither is it any particular political party - it's the party system. Always, always, always - it's the system!
In your country, as in mine, the individual politicians are owned by the political parties; the political parties are owned by the real powers - the big money boys. The boys we never get to vote for. Not that voting for them would help because elections on the scale of a modern nation are nothing more than an advertising contest. We, the voters, know absolutely nothing of these candidates - as proven by the "surprises" that keep popping up in regard to them.
Your constitution, outdated as it is, has been circumvented so often it looks like a maypole in the middle of a children's May-day dance. Our similar documents of high-sounding words does too.
But you know all this. Your reply to me did not answer my questions. You went on with more of what is wrong and fine sounding ideas of bits and pieces of what we ought to have.
Fact: We don't have that
Fact: We will never have that if we use the same broken tool (unworkable system) to try to run our nation(s).
Fact: We have never, in spite of patches galore, been able to "fix" this broken tool.
Fact: We need a properly working system to do the job we ask of a system; keeping our nations' people alive and making progress - however we decide to define "progress".
Fact: That "properly working system" does not exist anywhere in the world today, nor has it ever existed in this world.
Fact: If we want such a system we need to invent it. From scratch. Using our knowledge and experience with the present one and all its predecessors.
I think that this is well within our capability. I think this because I, with no real knowledge of such things, over 40 years ago invented such a system. It probably has little real socio/economic/political value but it has one extremely important value - it shows that it is POSSIBLE to think outside the box. It IS possible to conceive of and design other systems, even capitalist systems, that would meet our needs better than the present greed-capitalism one does. NOT a "perfect" system - just a better one - one step at a time, please.
We CAN do this once we see the need for it. We have the capability. We have the experience. We have the knowledge. We can decide what we want our future society to look like - what we want it to do for the citizens (our children & grandchildren) of the day. Once we have some idea of what we want (something we never before decided on), we can get on with designing a system that will do that.
Until we have some clear idea of what we want our nation to look like and the job its system must do for its citizens, we are just treading water. We cannot work toward a goal that we don't have. All the 'movement' in the world will not amount to progress until we know what our objectives are. Once we have that nailed down we can measure "progress" by answering the question, "are we getting closer to our goals or not?"
-------------------------------------------------------
The reference to "hugs & love" derives from the "solutions" to our difficulties that I encounter so often.
The reference to markinjapan and frank was meant only to point out that you are doing to Obama what mark is doing to frank - name calling. In my mind your reasons are no more honourable than mark's or frank's. Obama is a front man, a puppet. Get off his case. If it weren't him it would just be another puppet. Who cares which one of them it is. Both parties have a box-full of them, all alike; all obedient.
G'mornin' to ya!
PS
Skim through some of my blogs to see what my "designed system" might look like.
.
"Get off his case. If it weren't him it would just be another puppet. Who cares which one of them it is. Both parties have a box-full of them, all alike; all obedient."
Wow. You just don't get it about personal responsibility in office, do you? Collective and personal responsibility and you are one more person trying to silence a messenger of conscience because it is inconvenient to your comfort zone.
What teflony power does Obama have to have you tell me to get off his case as he has sold out millions, physically harmed millions with more to come. As if Obama would even heed what I am saying if he even read it. Why should he when he has so many staunch protectors giving him a pass for his puppet role.
And you are calling me out to not be more civil in addressing him? I should just STFU or not aim any anger at him or bother complaining about any of the puppets and the rat bastard oligarchs pulling the strings?
I call that "authoritarian following" or "over-identifying with the aggressor" or ENABLING. No, you just don't seem to get it. Throw in maybe "learned helplessness", too.
And acceptance of a power and control of patriarchy and not demanding a government of empathy and cooperation with the people being government. An orbit of mutual respect.
I SHOULD GET OFF HIS CASE????? AS IF I AM A THREAT TO HIM???? Very unlikely considering the ostrich stance of most of the citizenry.
He's just doing the job as best he can??? Really? Bleeeeeeeeechhhhh. So he does it defying constitutional and human law. So what? IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?
I feel like I am stuck in that old movie, the Kevin McCarthy version, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
You know I thought you were sincere and I responded to your questions above but I guess they were just dismissively rhetorical.
I don't think MY RAGE is the problem. And I think resistance to my rage is sadly telling. I'd avoid future blogs of mine. They'll undoubtedly annoy you.
Wow. You just don't get it about personal responsibility in office, do you? Collective and personal responsibility and you are one more person trying to silence a messenger of conscience because it is inconvenient to your comfort zone.
What teflony power does Obama have to have you tell me to get off his case as he has sold out millions, physically harmed millions with more to come. As if Obama would even heed what I am saying if he even read it. Why should he when he has so many staunch protectors giving him a pass for his puppet role.
And you are calling me out to not be more civil in addressing him? I should just STFU or not aim any anger at him or bother complaining about any of the puppets and the rat bastard oligarchs pulling the strings?
I call that "authoritarian following" or "over-identifying with the aggressor" or ENABLING. No, you just don't seem to get it. Throw in maybe "learned helplessness", too.
And acceptance of a power and control of patriarchy and not demanding a government of empathy and cooperation with the people being government. An orbit of mutual respect.
I SHOULD GET OFF HIS CASE????? AS IF I AM A THREAT TO HIM???? Very unlikely considering the ostrich stance of most of the citizenry.
He's just doing the job as best he can??? Really? Bleeeeeeeeechhhhh. So he does it defying constitutional and human law. So what? IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?
I feel like I am stuck in that old movie, the Kevin McCarthy version, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
You know I thought you were sincere and I responded to your questions above but I guess they were just dismissively rhetorical.
I don't think MY RAGE is the problem. And I think resistance to my rage is sadly telling. I'd avoid future blogs of mine. They'll undoubtedly annoy you.
APOLOGY skypixeo, I read your comment from the hugs and kisses part down. I didn't read the above part having just gotten up pre-coffee and was hoping for a more respectful tone, I guess. Sorry. My response to the beginning part.
You are not an American citizen ostrich after all. You are Canadian. But you are calling me out for my anger and my WASTING that emotion and dishonoring myself with it which I don't think I am.
And I think "awareness" is vital to recovery and addressing personal and collective responsibility, "the ability to respond." We have laws, we have checks and balances. We have so much corruption. We had oversight committees in place. The SEC, etc. But they were saturated with corruption. The human element. Cronyism and money and human amorality on a grand scale.
A new checks and balance system you have devised? But the human element. Jefferson was right about the price of freedom is human vigilance and we citizens so dropped the ball. I am ashamed of us baby boomers from anti-Vietnam period. We knew how horrifying it was. Back then we had a fourth estate to do much of the work and they got corrupted really badly too. Understatement.
When I get a chance I will read your system ideas. But I still assert the necessity to assert feelings in this anti-feeling, anti-empathy, narcissistic culture of ours.
When I say war criminal or being pimped by oligarchs and it is tragically true I am addressing reality not being gratuitously inappropriately mean-spirited.
Strident women really get on people's nerves, don't we? Triggers issues with mothers I would imagine.
You are not an American citizen ostrich after all. You are Canadian. But you are calling me out for my anger and my WASTING that emotion and dishonoring myself with it which I don't think I am.
And I think "awareness" is vital to recovery and addressing personal and collective responsibility, "the ability to respond." We have laws, we have checks and balances. We have so much corruption. We had oversight committees in place. The SEC, etc. But they were saturated with corruption. The human element. Cronyism and money and human amorality on a grand scale.
A new checks and balance system you have devised? But the human element. Jefferson was right about the price of freedom is human vigilance and we citizens so dropped the ball. I am ashamed of us baby boomers from anti-Vietnam period. We knew how horrifying it was. Back then we had a fourth estate to do much of the work and they got corrupted really badly too. Understatement.
When I get a chance I will read your system ideas. But I still assert the necessity to assert feelings in this anti-feeling, anti-empathy, narcissistic culture of ours.
When I say war criminal or being pimped by oligarchs and it is tragically true I am addressing reality not being gratuitously inappropriately mean-spirited.
Strident women really get on people's nerves, don't we? Triggers issues with mothers I would imagine.
libbly,
I cannot for the life of me understand what good it does to demand of a puppet that it take "personal responsibility" for its actions.
Picture this: Tomorrow morning, at 9:00AM sharp, Obama makes a 'mea culpa' speech and steps down.
Now what?
Well, now we're back to my original four questions....
""Who should be President?
Why?
What policies can you guarantee they'd follow?
How?""
Yes, libbly, it's fine to bring about "awareness" and it's certainly great to be as emotional, strident, or whatever, as is necessary, in doing so. But if there is anyone in all of the North American continent, other than the 95% who are sheeple and will NEVER get it, who haven't gotten it already, I can't imagine who it would be.
Awareness has been largely achieved. Let's move on to the next step.
I'd like to go back on something I said earlier. I said that our present system is broken and it can't be fixed. That isn't exactly right. Oh, our present system can't be fixed, alright. I had that right. What I had wrong is the "it's broken" part. It isn't broken.
The way it's working right now? That's the way it is meant to work. Yup. It's working great! Y'see libby, our present system was not meant to establish fairness, equity of reward, decent pay for decent work, or any kind of social security for our citizens. It was only meant to look that way to us, the sheeple.
It was meant, from the beginning, to uphold and support the concept that an "elite" of one kind or another, ought to be in place at all times. That elite need not actually rule as long as they can control those who sit in the seats of power.
Our present mess shows that to be working excellently. Not for us; for the elite.
Letting us elect he/she who will be the front man/woman makes it all so much easier to rule from behind the throne. Any time things go so bad for the sheeple that they start to bleat, the real powers can abandon the front man to be a sacrificial goat and move the next puppet up to fill the empty seat.
Any system of elections is perfect for making it appear to the sheeple that they have chosen their own master. It is especially easy to manipulate an elective procedure through the Political Party system which is itself easy to manipulate with money.
This all works so well as far as the real masters are concerned, that they've caused the world's leading "elective" type government to go off to other nations to try to impose this "democracy" on them.
Gee, that couldn't be what's happening in, say........ fer instance....... Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. Could it? Maybe a few other places too?
So go right ahead and "strident" all over the place to yer heart's content. The odd sheeple here and there will get excited for a second or two, then go back to placidly munching grass - and when the grass is gone they'll placidly munch dirt. The rest of us, who know what you know, and have known it for some time, still will have the job facing us of designing and implementing another of mankind's long line of "systems" as we continue to try to "get it right" on behalf of everyone.
Every system we've tried - every last one - has taught us certain lessons. Little by little we're getting there. What communism should have been and what American capitalism could have offered if done right, show that we are getting closer than we were with kingdoms and feudalism. In time all is possible.
(ᴼᴥᴼ)
.
I cannot for the life of me understand what good it does to demand of a puppet that it take "personal responsibility" for its actions.
Picture this: Tomorrow morning, at 9:00AM sharp, Obama makes a 'mea culpa' speech and steps down.
Now what?
Well, now we're back to my original four questions....
""Who should be President?
Why?
What policies can you guarantee they'd follow?
How?""
Yes, libbly, it's fine to bring about "awareness" and it's certainly great to be as emotional, strident, or whatever, as is necessary, in doing so. But if there is anyone in all of the North American continent, other than the 95% who are sheeple and will NEVER get it, who haven't gotten it already, I can't imagine who it would be.
Awareness has been largely achieved. Let's move on to the next step.
I'd like to go back on something I said earlier. I said that our present system is broken and it can't be fixed. That isn't exactly right. Oh, our present system can't be fixed, alright. I had that right. What I had wrong is the "it's broken" part. It isn't broken.
The way it's working right now? That's the way it is meant to work. Yup. It's working great! Y'see libby, our present system was not meant to establish fairness, equity of reward, decent pay for decent work, or any kind of social security for our citizens. It was only meant to look that way to us, the sheeple.
It was meant, from the beginning, to uphold and support the concept that an "elite" of one kind or another, ought to be in place at all times. That elite need not actually rule as long as they can control those who sit in the seats of power.
Our present mess shows that to be working excellently. Not for us; for the elite.
Letting us elect he/she who will be the front man/woman makes it all so much easier to rule from behind the throne. Any time things go so bad for the sheeple that they start to bleat, the real powers can abandon the front man to be a sacrificial goat and move the next puppet up to fill the empty seat.
Any system of elections is perfect for making it appear to the sheeple that they have chosen their own master. It is especially easy to manipulate an elective procedure through the Political Party system which is itself easy to manipulate with money.
This all works so well as far as the real masters are concerned, that they've caused the world's leading "elective" type government to go off to other nations to try to impose this "democracy" on them.
Gee, that couldn't be what's happening in, say........ fer instance....... Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. Could it? Maybe a few other places too?
So go right ahead and "strident" all over the place to yer heart's content. The odd sheeple here and there will get excited for a second or two, then go back to placidly munching grass - and when the grass is gone they'll placidly munch dirt. The rest of us, who know what you know, and have known it for some time, still will have the job facing us of designing and implementing another of mankind's long line of "systems" as we continue to try to "get it right" on behalf of everyone.
Every system we've tried - every last one - has taught us certain lessons. Little by little we're getting there. What communism should have been and what American capitalism could have offered if done right, show that we are getting closer than we were with kingdoms and feudalism. In time all is possible.
(ᴼᴥᴼ)
.
Libby,
I don’t pretend to KNOW anything about Obama’s motives. I can only guess…and suppose.
I KNOW that he is being met with obstructionism of cosmic proportions…and I choose to suppose he is trying to do his best under very difficult circumstances.
I MAY BE absolutely wrong in defending him…in asking to give him a chance to work within the confines of this obstructionism. I may one day find out he is a cad and a scoundrel who is a closet conservative. I may also find out he was born in Kenya. But I think not. I honestly think I am right in my assessment of the man. I do understand that my stance in that regard causes some people to become enraged.
In any case, I do think the BEST COURSE OF ACTION, considering all the obstacles in his path, may be the course he is taking. Taking steps that appear to be unwarranted concessions and capitulations. But that often is the way winning chess is played. Personally, I do not think the best liberal minds now alive…or the best liberal minds of past years…could get appreciably more out of the situation and climate in which he is working.
I understand that you…and many others here…see things differently.
I strongly feel that the course of action being taken by liberals and progressives that hurt the re-election chances of Obama, which is to say, which strengthen the chances that one of the Tea Party vetted Republicans will be elected…
…is the wrong direction in every respect.
Sorry if I sounded condescending, Libby…I certainly was not headed in that direction. I feel as strongly about my position on this issue as you do about yours. I promise you that I am trying to treat you and this thread as respectfully as possible!
I’ll be posting a thread of my own tomorrow that will address some of this one more time. I hope you have time to visit and to participate in the discussion.
I don’t pretend to KNOW anything about Obama’s motives. I can only guess…and suppose.
I KNOW that he is being met with obstructionism of cosmic proportions…and I choose to suppose he is trying to do his best under very difficult circumstances.
I MAY BE absolutely wrong in defending him…in asking to give him a chance to work within the confines of this obstructionism. I may one day find out he is a cad and a scoundrel who is a closet conservative. I may also find out he was born in Kenya. But I think not. I honestly think I am right in my assessment of the man. I do understand that my stance in that regard causes some people to become enraged.
In any case, I do think the BEST COURSE OF ACTION, considering all the obstacles in his path, may be the course he is taking. Taking steps that appear to be unwarranted concessions and capitulations. But that often is the way winning chess is played. Personally, I do not think the best liberal minds now alive…or the best liberal minds of past years…could get appreciably more out of the situation and climate in which he is working.
I understand that you…and many others here…see things differently.
I strongly feel that the course of action being taken by liberals and progressives that hurt the re-election chances of Obama, which is to say, which strengthen the chances that one of the Tea Party vetted Republicans will be elected…
…is the wrong direction in every respect.
Sorry if I sounded condescending, Libby…I certainly was not headed in that direction. I feel as strongly about my position on this issue as you do about yours. I promise you that I am trying to treat you and this thread as respectfully as possible!
I’ll be posting a thread of my own tomorrow that will address some of this one more time. I hope you have time to visit and to participate in the discussion.
Your comment to me re: apisa, doesn't dampen my feelings for You, nor Your stance, but apisa IS a major part of the problem.
As I've said before, those who find delight in rationalizing any and all immoral actions by sloganizing, rather than presenting ANY rationale justifying their defense of the indefensible MUST be confronted at all possible times.
Silence IS complicity.
frank's been this way for three years now, and refuses to present anything resembling a coherent fact to justify his blind faith.
He gets from me, precisely what he deserves, total abhorrence.
As I've said before, those who find delight in rationalizing any and all immoral actions by sloganizing, rather than presenting ANY rationale justifying their defense of the indefensible MUST be confronted at all possible times.
Silence IS complicity.
frank's been this way for three years now, and refuses to present anything resembling a coherent fact to justify his blind faith.
He gets from me, precisely what he deserves, total abhorrence.
To further explain my disdain for apisa, let me just illustrate (and You can see this all over my blog and most of my comments). Almost the entirety of my blog is annotated, and usually double-checked for accuracy.
I like FACTS - frank likes mindless slogans.
frank most recent slogan is "doing the best he can with the cards he's been dealt."
When frank can rationalize that stupid comment with this fact:
"What is shocking is that the bulk of the drone explosion has occurred under Obama — the very president who cast himself as the antithesis of George W. Bush who promised he would never condone un-American Bush era policies such as the unlawful detainment and waterboarding of enemy combatants.
But in just two years Obama authorized nearly four times as many drone strikes as Bush did during his entire two terms in office.This, despite the fact the former constitutional law professor is likely cognizant the drone attacks violate international law.
And what could be more morally reprehensible, not to mention cowardly, than death-from-the-sky extrajudicial target killings of suspected militants by remote unmanned aerial vehicles? Drones play cop, judge, jury and executioner in one fell swoop at the click of a button by an operator sitting in a safe undisclosed location in front of a Nintendo-like monitor screen.
According to a an Oxford Research Group report the U.S. has flouted international law by failing to identify drone casualties, violating universal human rights including freedom from being arbitrarily deprived of one’s life and not providing compensation for possible wrongful deaths.
According to Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann in Foreign Affairs, about 15 to 20 percent of those killed by drones are non-combatants."
http://pakpotpourri2.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/obamas-drone-surge-in-pakistan-doing-more-damage-than-good/
I hold obama's feet to the fire, and until frank has any sort of reasonable answer to this FACT, I'll continue to hold his to the fire.
I'd rather be banned from OS, than allow frank's mealy-mouthed lies to go unanswered.
I like FACTS - frank likes mindless slogans.
frank most recent slogan is "doing the best he can with the cards he's been dealt."
When frank can rationalize that stupid comment with this fact:
"What is shocking is that the bulk of the drone explosion has occurred under Obama — the very president who cast himself as the antithesis of George W. Bush who promised he would never condone un-American Bush era policies such as the unlawful detainment and waterboarding of enemy combatants.
But in just two years Obama authorized nearly four times as many drone strikes as Bush did during his entire two terms in office.This, despite the fact the former constitutional law professor is likely cognizant the drone attacks violate international law.
And what could be more morally reprehensible, not to mention cowardly, than death-from-the-sky extrajudicial target killings of suspected militants by remote unmanned aerial vehicles? Drones play cop, judge, jury and executioner in one fell swoop at the click of a button by an operator sitting in a safe undisclosed location in front of a Nintendo-like monitor screen.
According to a an Oxford Research Group report the U.S. has flouted international law by failing to identify drone casualties, violating universal human rights including freedom from being arbitrarily deprived of one’s life and not providing compensation for possible wrongful deaths.
According to Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann in Foreign Affairs, about 15 to 20 percent of those killed by drones are non-combatants."
http://pakpotpourri2.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/obamas-drone-surge-in-pakistan-doing-more-damage-than-good/
I hold obama's feet to the fire, and until frank has any sort of reasonable answer to this FACT, I'll continue to hold his to the fire.
I'd rather be banned from OS, than allow frank's mealy-mouthed lies to go unanswered.
skypixieo, frank, mark, thanks for your comments and for continuing on with me.
I am about to post another blog about some horrifying financial scandals and I am not sure that will close out the opportunity to comment back to you guys on this thread but I hope so and I will try tomorrow. Just finishing up a tough work night.
Still trying to figure out OS. This is the most hits I have had and that is gratifying. I appreciate the exchanges and want to read more of each of your writings. It means a lot to have people like you really listen to a blog and especially to some of my more long-winded and emotional comments a/k/a tangents.
To be continued! libby
I am about to post another blog about some horrifying financial scandals and I am not sure that will close out the opportunity to comment back to you guys on this thread but I hope so and I will try tomorrow. Just finishing up a tough work night.
Still trying to figure out OS. This is the most hits I have had and that is gratifying. I appreciate the exchanges and want to read more of each of your writings. It means a lot to have people like you really listen to a blog and especially to some of my more long-winded and emotional comments a/k/a tangents.
To be continued! libby
I mean I hope "not". Geeez. Gotta get some sleep.
To all those who believe personal responsibility is impractical, impossible and/or implausible, then I say please put your money where mouth is and repeat that statement to your neurosurgeon while being rolled into the operating room. One suspects one will take a different tack at that point.
No comments:
Post a Comment