General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCongressman Larson's West Hartford Town Hall on Iraq, Sunday June 22,2014
I did more prep for attending this Town Hall than usual. I implored the DU community for some insight on things I could not find answers to on the internet, and heres the link for the always high quality DU responses.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025125650
I also PMed Octafish here, cuz he knows everything and sources it well. And he helped me. Im passionate about the current state of Oligarchy and all the sociopaths running and wrecking everything, so its hard to focus on what others had to say. So I sound more self-absorbed than usual here, cuz its all about what I had to say, only.
I said that if you were to take fifty of the best geopolitical minds in the world and lock them together in a room for a month, their recommendations stand as much success as where we are at now. My point being that all the wisdom in the world aint gonna fix this.
Which leads into; how did we get here in the first place? I said I remember being in that very town hall back in late 2002 or early 2003, before the invasion, telling John the White House rationale for invasion was bogus, and I would have preferred to have the people that run the MAFIA in the White House, because they are more honorable than the GWB lot at that pre-invasion time.
John had said earlier that the invasion was the result of well-intentioned people that acted on the best intelligence they had to work with at the time. I told him they knew they were lying and the lot of them should be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and prosecuted for murder. I told him I also said that to him at a previous TH meeting in Bristol, CT last winter. I have to write his office and substantiate that, because he is so on the wrong side of history on that its embarrassing. Heres some recent vids that are just a portion of the thousands of hours of pre-war proof-of-mendacity these freaks got away with.
http://billmoyers.com/content/buying-the-war/
He praised the Keystone Pipeline, so I shared my understanding of it; It will provide America with fifty jobs total after its up and running, and the refined oil will be shipped out of the Gulf and will do almost nothing to satisfy Americas thirst for oil, and will benefit nobody except Big Oil Corporations. Please correct me if Im wrong, but I dont understand how either John or I could get it so wrong???
Which lead into my comments on global climate change. Its too late. Its over. The world is doomed and the only question is when do the mass extinctions start and how long humanity can survive on this planet. Global warming is a runaway train that humanity is trying to stop with a butterfly net. And we arent really doing even that. Were just starting to consider it as the first solution slightly better than nothing.
Lastly, I asked him what I asked on DU just who is ending up with the oil rights, and, thanks to the responses from my DU post, I told him if the citizens of Iraq exercise the possibility of nationalizing the oil and taking it away from the big oil multi-national, America would reinstate the draft and start a hot war to get it back. (Wasnt Gulf War 1 really about Saddam going off the dollar for the dinar, which means we could no longer simply print more money to buy more oil? (A concept I got from a wiser DUer))
FWIW. What else can a poor solitary little half assed activist do, anyway? Not much, except in the words of my hero Frank Zappa; First, dont stop. Second, keep going.
From the article;
Although the event started calmly with a brief opening statement by Larson, tensions rose in the room during the question period, with those who said they oppose intervention repeatedly shouting down those who suggested they might be in favor of it. <There was shouting. But it was provoked by a speaker that monopolized the floor with stale debunked talking points for a lot longer than average manners would allow>
Others rose to offer their speculations on topics ranging from the Quran to conspiracy theories involving American foreign policy in the past two decades, <a speaker recited some Alex Jones claptrap> including repeated calls for various American leaders to be tried in international courts on war crime charges. <And I was one of them among many>
It amazes me to see people recite a list of anti-Obama talking points, as if there was some sort of factual basis for them. There were maybe 2 out of the 15 or so points on the Fox viewers laundry list of grievances against the President that had factual merit. The other points would have made Darryl Issa beam with pride.
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-larson-iraq-hearing-06-20140622,0,2271908.story
And how about those comments after the article. John seems despised among his Constituents. I dont think hes that bad a guy, as far as career politicians go. He deserves a lot of credit for being so gracious sincerely responding to questions I would find loathsome and beneath contempt. John did get amped up about Sandy Hook and the resultant lack of new background check laws, which he said were favored by 91% of America. (Which is true. BUT, such laws were not passed because Dems overplayed their hand and thought they could do a sweeping overhaul of a bunch of related laws in that brief moment of opportunity, and thus played a lousy game of political chess.)
John was also fired up on Republican obstructionism just give us a vote, he implored. Im amazed that Republican obstructionism is actually working out quite well for them. They prevent anything from getting done and then blame Obama for it. And the quagmire in DC as Obamas fault seems to be the conventional wisdom in all of America. Its like only DU readers know the first thing about the back story of DC intransigence! Well played, Republicans. You do seem to be fooling most of the people most of the time.
-90% Jimmy
Gman
(24,780 posts)I needed to hear and read this to renew my total outrage and disgust with our government that war criminals are not only free but on Sunday talk shows. That's as big a crime as the war crimes.