kpete
kpete's Journal
CHARLES P. PIERCE: CNN Mongers the ISIS Fear Then Wonders Where It Came From
.........the vainglorious louts who currently are running for president over here. Or the fearmongering gombeens who run cable television networks that have turned a pretty buck hyping up a bunch of savages in second-hand pick-up trucks into an existential threat to the most powerful nation on earth, and then have had their hired coiffures express surprise when the poll numbers indicate that they have done that job all too well.
A whopping 59% of Democrats are unhappy with the progress President Obama has made on the war on terror, along with 86% of Republicans and 69% of independents. Democrats are nearly split on who is specifically winning, though, with 52% believing neither side is. But a majority—55%—of Republicans feel the terrorist are winning.
Since the Paris shootings, and certainly since the shootings in San Bernardino, through the efforts of our leading television news stars, Daesh has been converted into the greatest threat to Western civilization since the Battle of Tours. They are supervillains with mad computer skillz and secret Muslim mind-tricks who can turn Your Children into implacable murder machines. They are so powerful that, to defeat them, we need a 500-ship Navy, a sky full of malfunctioning F-35 strike fighters, another couple of billion down the rathole of missile defense, and Marco Rubio in the White House before we can feel safe. They are too strong for our current military to defeat, but simply electing Chris Christie will scare them straight. Even without any aircraft of their own, they can stand up to our $150 billion Air Force, but the public scorn of a vulgar talking yam will be enough to bring them to their knees. If you want to see what losing the war on terror really looks like, don't look to the Middle East. Instead, watch the television commercials approved by the various Republican presidential candidates. The three Democratic candidates are better, but not by much.
The fact is that you can't win a "war" on terror any more than you can win a "war" on hate or a "war" on any other easily activated human emotion, if there are enough powerful institutions that can profit from its activation. It's really up to the rest of us, as active citizens in a self-governing republic, to keep things in perspective about the genuine dangers and the fantastical ones by which other people profit. There are genuine threats to our safety—bridges near collapse, gas leaks that may ruin a whole town, the unfettered access to firearms and the readiness to use them. That should be inspiration enough for We, The People to fulfill our pledge to each other to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare. John Quincy Adams was only half-right; if America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy, then it ought not to create them here at home, either.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a40810/ramadi-liberated-will-cnn-notice/
While Claiming To Promote Freedom/Peace - USA Is Doing More Than Any Other Country To PROMOTE WAR
There is a ton of information in this report, and I urge you to at least peruse the entire report. But the main thing is that the U.S. (while claiming to be freedom and peace-loving) is doing more than any other country to promote war -- and the Western nations (all democracies) together provide much more arms than Russia and China combined.
REPORT:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R44320.pdf?can_id=851b9fa714ce36720334fc0d49e7c343&source=email-thank-you-arms-report-released&email_referrer=thank-you-arms-report-released&email_subject=thank-you-arms-report-released&link_id=3
via: http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-seven-nations-supplying-most-arms.html
KRUGMAN: "Not being Donald Trump doesn’t make someone a moderate, or even halfway reasonable."
Paul Krugman:Liberals need to be careful about “Trumpenfreude” or conservatives will “double down on W.”
"Not being Donald Trump doesn’t make someone a moderate, or even halfway reasonable," Krugman reminds us
..............
..........you might have expected the debacle of George W. Bush’s presidency — a debacle not just for the nation, but for the Republican Party, which saw Democrats both take the White House and achieve some major parts of their agenda — to inspire some reconsideration of W-type policies. What we’ve seen instead is a doubling down, a determination to take whatever didn’t work from 2001 to 2008 and do it again, in a more extreme form.
............
The point is that while the mainstream contenders may have better manners than Mr. Trump or the widely loathed Mr. Cruz, when you get to substance it becomes clear that all of them are frighteningly radical, and that none of them seem to have learned anything from past disasters.
Why does this matter? Right now conventional wisdom, as captured by the bookies and the betting markets, suggests even or better-than-even odds that Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz will be the nominee, in which case everyone will be aware of the candidate’s extremism. But there’s still a substantial chance that the outsiders will falter and someone less obviously out there — probably Mr. Rubio — will end up on top.
And if this happens, it will be important to realize that not being Donald Trump doesn’t make someone a moderate, or even halfway reasonable. The truth is that there are no moderates in the Republican primary, and being reasonable appears to be a disqualifying characteristic for anyone seeking the party’s nod.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/opinion/doubling-down-on-w.html
Bernard Sanders - Oct. 16, 1973
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-119927_full.html#.VoFIxpMrJEI
Colbert nails Trump: “He’s my old character with ten billion dollars,”
“He’s my old character with ten billion dollars,” Colbert said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation. “He’s completely playing on an emotional level, and so beautifully. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why I just can’t do that old character anymore, because he’s doing it better than I ever could because he’s willing to drink his own Kool-Aid. And manufacture and distribute it because he’s got all the cash.”The “Late Show” host made his comments during a sit-down with fellow CBS host John Dickerson. Colbert also pointed out that Trump doesn’t let facts get in the way of his message.
“He’s this very interesting like Frankenstein of the idea that um, facts don’t matter and only money does.”
Despite the criticism, Colbert went on to say he does respect Trump’s ability to connect with his audience.
“I have a respect for Trump for knowing who the real audience is. That if you really wanna win you gotta get the people,” he said. “The people get to make the call. Especially now because the parties are so beholden to big money. That the party apparatus itself has been dismantled in favor of just cash. And so there aren’t, you know, wise old people who get to make the call because that’s been farmed out to Super PACS who don’t seem to be that powerful themselves really, but in giving the power over to the Super PACS they’ve actually completely defanged the party themselves.”
MORE:
https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/news/stephen-colbert-compares-donald-trump-presidential-bid-comedy-185753315.html?ref=gs
We are being played like suckers
http://www.dailyinfographic.com/the-illusion-of-choice-infographic
The land is NOT OURS to exploit:
What we need is a real alternative to the Neoliberal order that can sustain itself. The real original settlers of this continent are the Native Americans, not the pilgrims who you read about in school. And while you heard a lot in school about various ancient civilizations like the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans, the Native Americans build societies that lasted over 13,000+ years. Tribes and societies were highly diverse, so it is difficult to generalize too much; however, one thing they all had in common was the belief that the land is not ours to exploit:
"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." --Ancient Indian Proverb
"The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged..." --Luther Standing Bear
"What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?" -Massasoit
"One does not sell the land people walk on." --Crazy Horse
"We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?" -Sealth
"My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon. So long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have a right to the soil. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away" --Black Hawk
"We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone." -- Canassatego
"I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it…I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation near the mountains. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting." -- Satanta, Kiowa Chief
"If we ever owned the land we own it still, for we never sold it. In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the government. Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him; Joseph's horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell. My neighbor answers, Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me, and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they were bought." --Chief Joseph-Nez Perce
"They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one: they promised to take our land and they took it. It was not hard to see that the white people coveted every inch of land on which we lived. Greed. Humans wanted the last bit of ground which supported Indian feet. It was land - it has ever been land - for which the White man oppresses the Indian and to gain possession of which he commits any crime. Treaties that have been made are vain attempts to save a little of the fatherland, treaties holy to us by the smoke of the pipe - but nothing is holy to the white man. Little by little, with greed and cruelty unsurpassed by the animal, he has taken all. The loaf is gone and now the white man wants the crumbs." --Luther Standing Bear
http://archive.adl.org/education/curriculum_connections/na_quotes.html
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/26/1463906/-The-Neoliberal-Order-is-Breaking-Another-World-is-Possible
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