...but I like it because it is bitter, and because it is my heart... (long post)

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter", he answered,
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

- Stephen Crane, 'In the Desert'

Why?

If you boil DU (especially GD) down to its core essence, I believe you'd wind up with that lone syllable...and of course, doing so will leave you fully screwed for life, because you’ll start asking "Why?", too, which is the most dangerous, maddening, dispiriting, absolutely essential question there is...especially if you come up with an answer, because that will only lead to more questions, and yeah, that's your ass. :)

"Why?" is this awful little universe with a black hole at the core, bursting with the dark matter that is everything you don't know yet, what you suspect, what you dread, what you imagine, and whatever it was that got you asking "Why?" to begin with. "Why?" is three letters and a lifetime long, the most contagious DU affliction, and the one thing we all truly have in common with one another.

Why?

Why are we in Iraq?

Why would we make war on Iran?

Why does the majority in Congress allow its own subpoenas to be ignored?

Why is our Constitutional panic-button "off the table"?

Why are so many 'powerful' people so lacking in basic shame that they will literally say anything, no matter how gruesomely false or dangerous, if it helps them look good on TV?

Why do the Democrats go along with so much of the horrific Bush/Cheney program?

Why did they vote in favor of eviscerating FISA oversight?

And the Military Commissions Act?

And the Patriot Act?

And the Homeland Security Act?

Why? Why? WHY?

Because:

I. Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 1886: SCOTUS ruling granting 14th amendment rights to corporations, one decision among many, and corporate personhood is now settled law. These entities, with this decision, have the same rights as us.

II. WWII and FDR: Roosevelt rewired the American economy by fiat, changing its nature into a wartime machine that eventually manufactured two regimes into defeat. A few companies became astonishingly rich from government production contracts, and enjoyed newfound power and influence.

III. The Truman Doctrine, 1946: Kennan's Long Telegram from Moscow, warning of the threat posed by Stalin, became the basis for the Cold War policy to "contain" the USSR. The most fateful policy of the containment-based Truman Doctrine was the decision to make permanent the wartime economic footing set up by FDR to fight WWII. From then on, right up to this day, a significant foundation of our economy was the preparation for and fighting of wars. The defense contractors who got rich in WWII became wealthy beyond imagination, and their influence grew even more.

Milestone: By 1960, the private apparatus of war production was a kingdom unto itself. The loop of self-justification was set, and it became a frictionless machine that devoured tax dollars and turned out weapons to make sure we always needed weapons and would keep paying those tax dollars to get them.

And here was Eisenhower, saying farewell in 1960...with a speech that seems so radical today, an oration unlike any uttered by an American president...and one no president would dare give today. Everyone knows the big quote from that speech, but it is so very worthwhile to read the entire passage that warned of a new and dangerous power:

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence – economic, political, even spiritual – is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

He warned us, and he was right, and all he said has come to pass.

IV. Vietnam: 25 years of warfare further enriches that military industrial kingdom. That was their profit-taking time. Perspective: most Americans view Vietnam as a lamentable, error, a fool’s errand, a total disaster, a crime, or some permutation thereof. The Defense industry folks and their stockholders, however, see Vietnam as an unqualified success. 25 years of spending on their products? It was Christmas every day for a quarter-century.

V. Buckley v. Valeo, 1976: SCOTUS ruling that said money was the same as free speech, and the legalized bribery and wholesale purchase of politicians was upon us.

Lay it all together.

Corporations with human rights, enriched by war and the permanent establishment of the wartime economy, positively cash-glutted after 25 years of war in Vietnam, and legally able after ‘76 to buy and control the entire government. These are the super-citizens, who have all the rights you have, but have ten million times more power to press those rights. And they bought it all, bought the news and the information, bought the radio and the newspapers and the book publishers, and when they couldn't buy any more they had their pet politicians pass more deregulations, and they went on buying. Above it all, however, is the ingrained economic necessity for warfare and strife.

It comes down to this.

Any politician of either party who reaches national stature has, at some point before, signed on the dotted line agreeing to support and maintain this situation. The Democrats do this just as the Republicans do. Every president since Truman has done this. On this all-important point, there is truly no difference between the parties.

One reason for this display of unswerving bipartisanship is straightforward: if this whole charade was stopped cold today, the American economy would shatter like a crystal goblet dropped upon flagstones before sunrise tomorrow. The world would melt down, period. One might argue “Good, needs to happen,” and be eloquent in that argument, but no pol in DC is going to make it happen.

This economy needs warfare, and will collapse without it. Both parties know this well enough, and so both parties work to keep the carousel whirling. Why did the vote for the IWR? Why do they seem listless about thwarting an Iran attack? Because the economy requires it.

Why? There it is.

But here’s the oddest part, at least for me. All of that is depressing and disgusting and daunting to six hundred decimals, right? I think so. But when I finally accepted the truth of the deal, I mean accepted it down in my bones, I became filled with this sense of inner calm and peace; I could actually sleep at night and function without constantly having my needle in the red zone. I still have it, that sense of calm. It was one of the most important realizations of my life: happiness is fleeting, but real clarity lasts forever. I have some of that clarity now, I see what the deal is, and though it is gruesome and terrifying to behold, at least it isn’t some big damned mystery anymore.

That clarity makers dealing with these Democrats so much easier. If the field guide says the bear is going to shit in the woods, and I see a brown bear pinch a loaf underneath an oak tree, I’m not going to be surprised. The Dems will do what the current system requires, and that won’t change anytime soon, and it no longer staggers me. The bear’s gonna shit in the woods, it says so right here in the guide, so…

Has it always been like this? Are there no heroes or role models in national politics? Meh…well, that all depends on what one requires from a hero. Take Bobby Kennedy, for example. A great hero of mine, a family hero, someone who passed through astonishing agony and found new wisdom, deep passions and genuine empathy on the other side.



That’s Bobby swapping Commie-hunting stories with Joe McCarthy.

Yes, that Joe McCarthy.

From PBS: “In the 1950s, Robert Kennedy, like most Americans, despised communism. At the time, the Soviet Union was "Enemy #1." But RFK honed his anti-communism working side-by-side with the nation's leading red-baiter, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. A Kennedy family friend, McCarthy vacationed with the clan on Cape Cod, and even dated two Kennedy sisters, Pat and Jean. When Bobby needed a job in 1952, after working on his brother Jack's successful Senate campaign, his father Joe Kennedy picked up the phone. By January, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations had a new lawyer.”

PBS continued: “He would last barely six months, done in by a rivalry with McCarthy's chief deputy, Roy Cohn, as well as disenchantment with their overzealous style. But the months with McCarthy would follow Kennedy for the rest of his life, helping define the "Bad Bobby" that many liberals could never quite forget. Though Kennedy had long since moved on, he found McCarthy's death in 1957 "very upsetting." In historian Ronald Steel's words, "for him the errant senator was a kindred spirit -- one engaged, as he was himself, in the struggle against evil."”

Imagine if DU had been around back then? Oh, the thrashing Bobby would have taken in GD, complete with “If Bobby is nominated, I won’t vote!” ultimatums and all the rest of it…deservedly so, I might add. Power politics is a dirty business to get involved in, or even close to, especially if you’re stupid enough to actually care about more than paying back your donors and keeping your seat. We’re pretty stupid, I guess…thank God…but we’re also smart enough, hopefully, to know that all of them are dirty, all of them signed on the line that is dotted, and scourging away their dirt is our purpose in this, so we have to be our own heroes if we are ever to prevail.

I don’t care all that much about who the Dems nominate next year, because all of them are beholden to the same system. Yes, even Dennis…and if he wins and then attempts to take the system down, the system and its profiteers will fight back (asymmetrically, in fact, through the constant eruption of foreign wars instigated 20 years ago by US policies and/or Cold War gamesmanship), and he will probably fail in the end…or he will succeed and thus obliterate this paradigm, ushering in an era of anarchy and war that’ll make the Dark Ages seem quaint by comparison. Probably, however, if he wins…he’ll get a briefing on what the really real deal actually is, and he won’t be any more willing to stop the music than the others. Even Dennis.

And there is no doubt that the GOP is a genuine threat to national security and global…well…everything, I guess. The Dems may be playing the same fiddle regarding our warfare economy as the GOP, but there are enough genuine and important differences between them to merit my undivided attention. Enforced fundamentalist religion? Annihilated cities? Executive supremacy and Constitutional butchery? Choice? Stem cell research? Using NSA against the populace?

The list goes on…and yes, the Dems truly have aided and abetted a lot of that…but I do not believe they’d have done anything like that had Gore been allowed to move into his House. Joe Lieberman might have tried, but that’s it…but there is juuuust enough moral difference between those who enable such policies and those who actively pursue them, juuust enough to allow me to maintain that patience…

…and if I happen to throw up into my own soul every so often, well, that’s when I get to flex my coping skills…and that’s also when I remind myself that the bear’s gonna shit in the woods, just like the field guide said, so never mind being surprised by anything. There’s not enough hours in the day to indulge in feeling appalled by some totally predictable turn of events. The bear’s gonna poop. That’s how it is…for now.

My job is to get these rubes elected, again and again and again, and to be patient. Every time we increase our majority, we will increase our ability to pass good laws and appoint good judges…which will slowly bring the country back from the far-right mentality that has dominated for years…which will make it possible and then probable to elect better Dems, and better Dems again. It’ll take 10-15 years just to get the national head out of the national ass, which is precisely where the GOP has been shoving it since ’81, but that’s cool, because I’m patient. Like a stone.

I don’t matter. The idea that is, was and can again be America is all that matters. I’m not supposed to be happy, or pleased, or self-satisfied, or anything other than quietly and patiently horrified. My job is to cope, to work each day on this, and to play for the long term…ten elections minimum, and maybe there’ll be a bit of progress.

The question: Why?

Because we “need” war, period, and have for more than 60 years.

When will that change?

That depends on us, our patience, and our strong stomachs.

It won’t change tomorrow, or after the next election. No candidate of this moment will change it in any measurable sense. But it can be done. It must be done. We are Americans, children of a crazy dream, always striving to make that more perfect union, so that we will be a little more free tomorrow than we were yesterday.

Cheers.

but I get your gist.
BUT BUSH HAS TAKEN IT TO THE EXTREME

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=58&aid=59153

Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched the program (the War on Poverty) broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4 (!), 1967

And I would like to say that today I also encountered that calm. I'll skip the story. But there is a story. What I discovered was that I am a cog in that wheel. Somehow. Somewhere. I also make it go around.

You really nailed it, man.

So we now sit with each other. And we try to make this better.

:toast:

"but there is juuuust enough moral difference between those who enable such policies and those who actively pursue them, juuust enough to allow me to maintain that patience"

As good a definition of the two party phony-baloney system that Gore Vidal has been describing for the last 40 years as any that I have ever heard. Be sure that you have a big supply of patience, because the Dems and Republicans have been playing this game since before you and I were born and they will play I long after we are dead, unless we seize control of our party .

I am still grasping frantically at the surface.

(edit: meant to post to OP)

My point is that such an overthrow won't happen soon, or even close to soon. that's the patience...cuz you can't take over a national party if you aren't able to swim through the sewers and go commando through the rubble for a long, long time first.

We have to dance with the whore for what will feel like forever...but just maybe, we'll get a chance to kick her pimp's ass and start making things right...or at least marginally sane.

Like I said above, I won't live to see the fruits of the labor.

So what? I'm only important when trying to change something within reach of my right arm. Beyond that, it's only about pushing, pushing, pushing...

of this country for much longer, not sure i would be able to withstand being on my feet that long. And I hope not only you but I are alive to see the change we all so desperately desire.

It was right after the moment I realized that I wasn't going to live to see anything other than stalemate, defeat, frustration and maybe an occasional sparkle, like what happened last November.

I realized that...and was content. I was fine with it. Like I said, this isn't even remotely about me or you or any of us feeling good or enjoying any sense of accomplishment or triumph. Too much has gone too wrong, and happy in a political context isn't on our menu. I'm just running with the baton, and all I hope to be is fleet of foot, deep with breath, and strong enough to reach the end of my part of the track.

I owe that much, at least, to a country whose founding ideas gifted me and all of us with such amazing and remarkable liberties - of mind, of soul, of body, of heart - which are why we can even talk on a level like this. I'm good with clarity if it maybe makes it possible for future Americans to be happy for me. I can't begin to imagine a better mission and purpose and hope for this life.

:toast:

Sounds grim, but it isn't. I can stand up next to a mountain, and chop it down with the edge of my hand...or at least I can sleep at night again. Clarity. It's not just for breakfast anymore. :)

:hug:

was a freshman Congressman in the late 40s he noticed the Department of War (only active during war) was renamed the Department of Defense. That was the beginning of permanent war for profit. It's a hole we dug for ourselves. Rule number one: When in a hole, stop digging.

George Orwell wrote his books "Animal Farm" and "1984".

Oil comes to mind.

NEED like an addict NEEDS his drug. That kind of need.

Sure, we could start producing "green" energy, even create a green corporate structure like the Europeans are doing. But the guys (mostly guys) with the stranglehold on the power structure aren't gonna give it up & go green until they're good & ready, which is sometime after environmental disasters have wracked the earth and air and water have become the new oil, and they will also own the air and water. You wanna drink, you get it out of a bottle; you wanna breathe, you keep buying the filter inserts for your respirator mask.

The problem with patience is that there are physical limits in this game, and you will be gasping for breath with ravaged lungs and trying to distill your own pee with a makeshift aluminum foil solar collector before enough changes happen in the system to matter.

It's kinda like the new game-theory approaches to predicting social outcomes. The two fundamental rules are first, assume the worst of all other players, and second, try to think of something dirtier than they can come up with. Slimiest psychopath wins.

And, as an afterthought, permit me to point out that the corporate "person" is mandated by law to be a psychopath, operating only in its own narrow self-interest.

those environmental disasters will be up on us sooner rather than later. Al Gore said a few months ago, that he believed Global Warming would be the number one issue in 500 days. Today droughts are racking the south, and the weather man said the other day that the fresh water reserves for Atlanta would last about 90 days. That's aprox. 3 million people.

Can you answer that?

Its such a shame.

Because the people who should have owned them chose instead to flee the connotations plastered over those words by guys like Newt and his "Hard Words" talking points.

http://westwing.bewarne.com/third/50gonequiet.html

In a conference room in another part of the West Wing, Bruno is trying to get Sam and Toby to agree to use soft money to counteract some leaflets from the opposition that label the President as "Super Liberal". Sam doesn't want to "get around the law", and Bruno doesn't want to lose the election by running under different rules than the opposition uses, and he finally blows up at their reluctance to run in the same election as the other guys:

"We all need some therapy because somebody came along and said liberal means soft on crime, soft on drugs, soft on Communism, soft on defense. And we're going to tax you back to the stone age because people shouldn't have to work if they don't want to. And instead of saying 'Well, excuse me, you right-wing reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-education, anti-choice, pro-gun Leave it to Beaver trip back to the '50s, we cowered in the corner and said, 'Please...don't...hurt...me'. No more."

for fun sometimes.

somehow I feel we have passed a danger zone, one that is unfamiliar and fearful, what does one do when they known something is not the same, not quite right, far too unfamiliar? They hesitate, they question with "why" as you've said for far longer than they should and there in lies the problem in my opinion, we have questioned why since Reagan, we were told to relax, all is well, time will tell, history will judge.

Well I personally don't believe we have the time for relaxing, for waiting, for being patient, the fear will take hold if we allow it, strangle us into submission before we are even aware there were hands around our throats....

the time is passed for asking "why" the time has come for demanding they answer it, no more stalling, no more waiting, we are them, they are us, they have no right to treat us as little children unable to bear the truth of the big bad wolf.

I for one have long since grown out of my childhood, I deeply resent those demanding I continue to live in a world of what ifs and but "why Mom"?, Don't know about you but I am out of patience waiting for the answer to "why?"

Or that certain individuals and corporations within our economy require war?

It's very difficult for me to believe that our economy requires war.

http://www.militaryindustrialcomplex.com/

We have no manufacturing anymore, our farming is huge agri-biz that has nothing to do with average people, the auto industry is barely breathing, all our IT geeks lost their gigs to outsourcing, so ask yourself what is less believable:

That our economy is based on people working retail serving people spending money, plus lawyers and accountants and advertising agencies?

Or that our economy is inflated to the tune of trillions by massive defense spending, which is umbilically connected to the oil industry (cuz you can't have mechanized war without gas and oil), said trillions getting paid into a small yet unimaginably wealthy and influential industrial sector (our last manufacturing base) that buys politicians and makes sure there will always be war, fear of war, preparations for war, and spending on war.

What else is there? Timber? Donuts?

It's the elephant in the room. Reagan faked his way out of the "trickle-down" calamity in the mid-80s by dumping trillions into missiles and Star Wars. All that money created a false elevation in economic indicators...see? everything's great now!...except for you and you and you and...

Bush gave away trillions in tax cuts and is now holding the mirage-economy together with similar spending to inflate the indicators.

Old story. Think about it.

and solar energy and new forms of plastics and paper...It can be our new new deal. We just have to pry the power away from those who would live from oil and war. It can be done. I believe it.
(copying Europe would not be such a bad idea in many respects.)

Now you have to be patient with me for the 50+ years of work required to dismantle the paradigm of the internal combustion engine...:) Ha!...and true....

...ah hell, elect a Democrat (sez Will without palpable irony) who will kick biz-sector tax breaks to any company that could use that tax-return revenue as a re-investment into the company itself.

If you haven't heard a Republican sound like that, it's cuz they aren't really good at business anymore...unless it's a rigged business, unless he's running a rigged profit-stapled lie of a front.

A Republican would be perfect as CEO of a company that only exists to hold up the paint on the outer walls.

(Pssst...no)

They say "It's just business," and yeah, it's true, and it's also just rape, just murder, just stealing, just assault, just whatever Captain Privilege thinks he can get away with...

The GOP is dangerous. Vote Dem...from now until 2028. After that, you're on your own. :)

Why not reverse the tax cuts on the rich and move towards a tax structure like the one that existed under FDR? Cut defense spending and increase spending in several other areas that actually help people, such as a national health program, education, alternate energy development, etc. I don't see how that would hurt our economy. Sure, it would hurt the war profiteers tremendously. But the economy in general? I admit I'm no economist, and I don't even understand economics that well, but I just can't see it.

I don't see how that would hurt our economy. Sure, it would hurt the war profiteers tremendously. But the economy in general?

Yeah...no.

Priorities. In other words, fuck off and die with your "economy in general" crap, cuz that money belongs to someone already.

(that's me being the profiteers, btw)

If you think our leaders are motivated by the priority to help the average citizen, think again. In fact, let me drop this one on you...

George W. Bush is the most successful president in American history.

Period.

That is gospel truth, once you factor in the real priorities. Help Americans? Ha. Loot the Treasury with two mammoth tax cuts which shunted most of the Clinton surplus away from public programs in need of funds, and into the bank accounts of maybe 5,000 families neither you nor I will ever meet...

...and clean out the rest of Treasury's cash with a five-year multi-billion-dollar war that shunts money into Defense biz coffers by ther barnload...remember how Vietnam was ruinous for most but splendidly profitable for some, especially over 25 years? Well, they're doing it again in Iraq. Someone is always getting paid.

So...George was elected to make his friends rich, and to loot the Treasury so those pesky entitlement programs would be starved of funding, opening the way for a privatization push. Bush's people elected him to do these very things, and he did them all, and therefore according to his priorities, he has been a thumping success.

America is weird.

You had me fooled and confused when you said in your OP "This economy needs warfare, and will collapse without it." I didn't realize that that was you speaking with your profiteer hat on.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0222-22.htm

But, then, of course, a decade later, the US was involved with another war.

just how particularly "well" today's life for (yes) Germans is...

Ok, they had to be bombed out of their lives for a very long and painful period (5 years in WG, 5 decades (not bombed, but "starved" until the wall came down) in EG). It almost seems like, when looking at how "well" they live today... like, in a very twisted manner, "their sick plan WORKED" because their "first quarter" was a total disaster for (almost) the entire world at that time, but they had to be defeated (and murdered by millions?) by superpowers (US & USSR) bigger than them FIRST (and then "rebuilt" afterwards...).

Umm... What a plan! It (seems) it "worked" pretty well (for them...). Of course, they had TIME on their side then...

We don't (the ecology is on the brink of collapsing), so we cannot wait for a BIGGER superpower (or two?) than US to do the same to US as we did to THEM... And even more distressing, we cannot be "liberated from fascism" by a good country like US (then...). We sure wouldn't want to be "liberated" by China (as it is today...).

Ok. Bad "plan" for us. It's doomed to fail.

How about a national strike for as long as it will take (it sure would work "faster")?

We'll have full coverage and raging boners For All Time.

Feeeeeeeeeeel the power.

:P

Me John, big tree!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/bostonblog/071015&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2

:P

I know you are but what am I?

Infinity! Plus one! Plus infinity!

Man. You are so busted.

:P

(and if that didn't make you smile even a little, I'll quit)

(you smiled, tho)

(I know it)

I just hit 'Paste.' I didn't know what was on the clipboard.

So there.

Yeah.

:)

(stopping now)

Neener neener neener.

;)

of what Russia is doing with Iran, I believe they're working on another Cold War, only instead of the front lines being in Europe, they will center it in the Middle East. We get Iraq, they get Iran.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight_(2005_film)

not the whole economy.

critically intertwined with other major segments of the economy (stock market, health care, oil, manufacturing, etc).
No, the whole economy doesn't need it. But a very large piece of the economy needs it and hungers for it. If that need isn't fulfilled, the economy either suffers or has to change. But we've been in the war machine mode for so long, we don't know how to function without it. So we keep feeding it. And, of course, the military industrial complex does better if those weapons are put to use. War is good.

More than any other nation on the planet, our economy IS defense spending.

Hell, more than ALL other nations on the planet combined.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm

A major shift in defense spending would make the stock market crash seem like a holiday.

I have two questions about that statement that are probably unfair because I don't believe they can be answered in less than several pages, but I'll ask anyhow:

1. How do you know that?

2. If you were running for President, what would you do -- tell Americans that you would cut defense spending and risk a major depression -- or not?

Slowly I suppose. I image it would take decades to shift even half all of that money and resources from the war machines to peaceful enterprises. Not to mention an enormous shift in foreign and domestic policies. That seems unlikely in the near future. Maybe a financial change or a shift in social priorities could give us a little nudge in the right direction.

If you are running for Pres, you don't tell Americans you are cutting defense. That would look weak. But you could frame it as part of balancing the budget proposal or eliminating waste/contractor fraud and make a small dent like Clinton/Gore did.

for Lockheed (he started working there long before it was also Martin)

He said, "They have to keep the machine going. They don't have any other choice."

Which is a lot like what you are saying Will.

You know I've felt that way ever since I became aware of politics. It seemed apparent, clear. It was also the reason I wouldn't vote for Democrats or Republicans. Democrats if no other choice. Until that disgusting waste of air and his disgusting war-mongering buddies made it to the national elections in 2000. Then even I, in my near-socialist heart knew it was time to get of my ass and start voting Democrat.


Because the only other option was what we got right now. What we ended up with. Not acceptable, to put it mildly.

Clarity, Ike, Bobby, even Dennis ... I Understand ... Yes ... Nurse, after Mr Pitt finishes his jello, would you please give him another "blue Pill"?

Om namah shivaya
William

our "own side" throwing us under the bus. It's not only Republicans who want to cull activists working for change out...it's the very Dems that we will work to elect.

Enough of this. Agree that to sleep at night one needs to accept more than we thought we'd ever have to in realizing that so much is the same with both parties...but it doesn't help what eats away at the soul in the nightmares of that sleep. Because to know that even those you thought were with you are in many ways working against you...is not an easy thing to live with when our culture under the Bushies doesn't allow for much distraction away from the daily assaults on laws, freedoms and our sensibilities.

It is what it is...but those who have worked hard to change it shouldn't end up dead or completely demoralized either. Theres alot of dead wood in the Dem Party. Gotta change it from the ground up...locally to the top. The focus has to go where Howard Dean was trying to put it. But, not all State Dem parties are fun organizations to work with...because they are infiltrated with those who feel 'keeping the system going" is more important than change. The two party system needs to be changed. Will take a long time...but there are Repugs who will be seeking some of what we are when they finally see whats been going on. Not many...but enough to start some kind of different coalition going. That would be the hope... All of it is pretty rotten now. Many of us just didn't know how bad it was even though we knew there was a mess...we didn't realize the full extent...and there so much we still have yet to find out.

How do you tell the future victims of our bombs that they have to die or lose a limb or a family member or a friend? How do you tell your children and grandchildren that they'll have to deal with the full consequences of our continued abuse of the planet? How do you tell elderly people who eat dog food because they can't afford both food and medicine that there's no hope for them in this lifetime?

I'm 26. I don't have the luxury of shoving problems on to the next generation to solve because the worst won't happen until after I'm dead. No, I'll probably get to see the worst in my lifetime. So sorry if I'm not patient. It's just that I have this thing where I don't really like the taste of dog food.

and tell them solutions are right around the corner?

Cuz that's a lie. And you know it.

Truth is best.

How do you tell the future victims of our bombs that they have to die or lose a limb or a family member or a friend?

How do I lie to them and say I can stop it or make it better before the bomb hits tomorrow? Can you stop it or make it better by tomorrow?

How do you tell your children and grandchildren that they'll have to deal with the full consequences of our continued abuse of the planet?

How do I lie to them and say everything will be fine by tomorrow, cuz sleebarker has the immediate fix...?

How do you tell elderly people who eat dog food because they can't afford both food and medicine that there's no hope for them in this lifetime?

How do I lie to them and say sleebarker will be serving prime rib and peace and love for everyone?

I'm 26.

I'm 35. Hi. All that above you managed to hand to me as if I singlehandedly created poverty, aging, dog food and general all-around suckiness. Um...I didn't.

You talk...but fixing is another matter. How do I tell...how do I tell...um...how do you fix it?

Not with talk.

With work.

And patience.

And time.

...sorry...

I don't have the luxury of shoving problems on to the next generation to solve because the worst won't happen until after I'm dead.

Wow, sleebarker. Do me a favor and read the OP again, cuz you missed the point by miles. Please quote for me the exact sections of my OP that say "shove it off to the next generation." Copy and paste below, please.

Let me help. It's OK, don't worry...I wrote it, so I know just where to go. Read this again...this part, which some may call "the point," was inside those last fifteen paragraphs you apparently decided not to read...maybe after something in the beginning bummed you out. I know, I know...to be or not to be, quoth the raven...so, try again:

(...and P.S. I'm reveling in snark myself, so please take nothing I write personally or as insult...I sometimes get in trouble around here when I write like I'm a 500-megaton assbag with a keyboard, cuz people think I'm serious, but I'm just doing word-pushups...but, yeah, the sarcasm emoticon might be helpful...shit, just imagine this whole post is filled with smilies, OK? I mean that, and mean nothing else below except *soft-whap-to-the-back-of-your-head* read more carefully next time, 'K?... :hug: )

(oh, yeah, here's the stuff you missed...)

"Power politics is a dirty business to get involved in, or even close to, especially if you’re stupid enough to actually care about more than paying back your donors and keeping your seat. We’re pretty stupid, I guess…thank God…but we’re also smart enough, hopefully, to know that all of them are dirty, all of them signed on the line that is dotted, and scourging away their dirt is our purpose in this, so we have to be our own heroes if we are ever to prevail."

Stay with me, slee...maybe 75 more words...hope the underlining helps...kinda like a used book, right?

"I don’t matter. The idea that is, was and can again be America is all that matters. I’m not supposed to be happy, or pleased, or self-satisfied, or anything other than quietly and patiently horrified. My job is to cope, to work each day on this, and to play for the long term…ten elections minimum, and maybe there’ll be a bit of progress...It won’t change tomorrow, or after the next election. No candidate of this moment will change it in any measurable sense. But it can be done. It must be done. We are Americans, children of a crazy dream, always striving to make that more perfect union, so that we will be a little more free tomorrow than we were yesterday."

Hokay. There's lots more if you want to take another pass on your own.

So.

Slee, tell me exactly where in that chunk of many words one might locate anything about "shoving problems on to the next generation to solve because the worst won't happen until after I'm dead," as you said.

Can't wait...

In other words, sleebarker, my argument was/is that THIS FIGHT IS OURS, RIGHT NOW, but we won't see much or any of the rewards from our toil, because there is so much work and so little time, and because it MUST be done.

No, I'll probably get to see the worst in my lifetime. So sorry if I'm not patient. It's just that I have this thing where I don't really like the taste of dog food.

You must be a 21st century American. You demand change, but have no patience for the work required (as stated by you). You fail to read for comprehension, and then get snarky about your blown understanding while rocking that ignorant belligerence which makes Americans the pride of the Siene and the Louvre...*koff*...what? ;)

..and, uh...where's the dog food thing coming from?

Yes...you (and I) may indeed see the worst of things, may see the consequences of decisions we had no part in, may be killed in the vengeance of someone we never met or harmed, may suffer for the decisions of a leader we never got to vote for or against, and may simply wither away in the slaughtered absence of life-friendly ecosystems with stuff like air, food, etc...

We may see the worst of it...which is a hell of a thought, given that our last century saw two nuclear bombs dropped on two large human-filled cities; six million+ Jews slaughtered by the Nazis; 20 million+ Soviets slaughtered by Stalin; tens of millions more slaughtered by Mao's Great Leap Somewhere; millions of Cambodians butchered by the Khmer Rouge; maybe three-five million Vietnamese/Laotians/Cambodians killed by bombs, rifles, chemicals, starvation, deprivation, disease, and yeah, bombs again, and on Christmas fa Chrissake; Dresden put to the torch; the Normandy landing; Protestant against Catholic slaughter in Ireland; fascism in Spain; Saddam Hussein's use of the chemical weapons (we sold him) on the Fao Peninsula made far more accurate by our maps and intel to guide and redirect the artillery...

...oh, plus millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of people in Africa with chopped-off limbs, AIDS, crazy side-effects from under-the-table Big US Pharm drug trials, not to mention the people who were simply shot down with Russian or Chinese AK-47s bought for the price of one (1) live chicken in Sierra Leone or Rwanda or Darfur or the Sudan, but whatever, cuz you have this thing about dog food which is understandable...

(pssst...I was a high school English/Writing/Grammar teacher, among other things...you have a good mind and a great heart...but...READ what a person writes before daring to scold them for their writing...i.e. we agree, you just don't know it yet)

(and I love that)

:hug:

I just want to say that this post is like going home for me.


You see, ever since I was a young boy I was taught that this country needed war. I've spent years discussing this with my father. And it's clearer than a clear day to me. And it's not something that one hears regularly. So to see it is to be like hearing my dad.

And I take two things from this message. One is that I am part of the machine. And the other is that we need to change the way it operates. It ties in to politics, economy, global warming, population. This is more than war. This is business. This is a country whose survival requires ammunition.

I think everything we're doing on this forum is a means to move away from this military economy. But yet we rarely mention it. It's tacit behind everything we do here. And I'd like to see it moved to the foreground. And that's just what Will Pitt has done.

Thank you.

and I will read it again tomorrow and consider it.

and the worst are full of passionate intensity.

In our time political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.
George Orwell

All that above may be indefensible...

But I wrote it all. Orwell's been dead a while, so...

Genuinely interested. Your own words?

Your meandering prose, while written well, appears to be nudging DU'ers to be satisfied if we select the WORST our party has to offer, because, you say, we would then be making small inroads.

I find that sentiment to be shortsighted and dangerous.

The Democrats MUST represent the working class. They MUST stand up to corporations.
If, once again, we don't nominate a candidate committed to these principles, then America becomes a country where the working class isn't represented by anyone.
America becomes a country where only the rich have a voice in the political process.

That is indefensible.

But when they don't, or go half-assed, because congress' real, check-writing constituency doesn't have working people's needs close to their hearts...then what?

I agree with all of what you say. But my point was that it's a long way off. And it won't get any closer without working for it and tolerating a lot of bullshit along the way.

NAFTA. GATT. Hell, remember the quote from the head of the Trade Services Union in '98, about the Clinton job boom? "Bill Clinton has created eight million new jobs, and I've got three of them."

None of what you require will happen next year. That's just the deal. So...

Thanks for the compliment, btw.

Maybe if we had a million or so outboard motors and could get them all pointed the same way...........well, that last one is going to be really, really hard.

Nail, meet head. People don't want their iron rice bowls broken, prison-industrial complex as well as military industrial complex. They have as many or more votes than we do. And they are why we are moving toward a society which can't make anything anymore--all we can do is beat the shit out of other countries and take their resources, put each other in jail, and sell each other cheap imported crap.

Even Dennis is not radical enough to realize that we need to not just go back to the New Deal, but to rethink the nature of work. The situation of having fewer and fewer people (more and more of whom are located abroad) making more and more stuff is not sustainable if it remains the case all the displaced people are no longer able to buy any of the stuff.

It's all we can do. If politics doesn't give a chance to vote and work for the greater good, at least the somewhat (maybe)lesser evil will be one of two choices. In the meantime, we do what we can to make things better, one at a time, wherever we can.

But someone recently posted here that Nancy looked "scared".

Considering how many people involved in the administration, past AND present, end up dead (errr "suicide" by three bullets in the head, plane crashes on clear evenings, car accidents on clear country roads, healthy USAs with "natural causes" etc etc), it is TOTALLY possible, as Will and others have gone to great pains to point out in previous writings... that dark forces exist after the status quo started by Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad.

THAT'S the killer. Nancy et al have every reason to be scared of the industrial/arms cabal.

Guts time, folks. PNAC is only the head of a very big, rich and powerful snake.

Nice one again, Will.

Absolutely superb! Thank you very much. Distilled, it all means that those in power want to stay in power. That is true throughout human history. People who have power and wealth have absolutely nothing to gain by sharing said power and wealth. They only do so when forced to do so.

Wish I could do that. I can think it. But I can't write it. But thinking it doesn't count.

Great job.

Don

Bullshit.

That counts more than anything else. Period. Writing is a talent/skill, like juggling or playing chopsticks really fast...but thinking is the way to freedom, and is freedom itself, and is everything else besides.

But you know that. :hug:

:toast:

signing onto the system to one degree or another reminds me of that great sage, Bill Hicks, who said (paraphrasing) "See, when you get to be President, they take you into a dark room, and they show you a movie of the Kennedy assassination, and all of a sudden you realize you're watching it from a TOTALLY DIFFERENT CAMERA ANGLE. And you look at the people around you and say "OK! Got it! Where do I sign?"

Over all, Will, you've provided some pretty good signposts (cue Rod Serling: "There's a signpost up ahead . . . ") on the road we never chose, but choose in one way or another to travel.

Where does the road go? Empire? Probably. Collapse of Empire? Certainly.

It's perspective that we lack, I think. We look at other failed empires and say "Yeah, but . . . "

Yeah, but . . . the people in those empires said it, too. And when the rights started disappearing, no one hung a big sign that said "Welcome To Empire;" not the Greeks, not the Romans, the Carolingians or anyone else that comes to mind. And people march on from day to day and, as Al Stewart once wrote "No one notices the customs slip away." For us, those customs are intertwined with our Constitutional heritage, and they are going, going, gone.

I'm taking a pretty dim view of my country right now, Will. I tend to concur in your assessment that we won't see any dramatic change in our national character any time soon, let alone our political structures. It's more frightening (as many might agree) to contemplate that any such real change will be in the negative, toward more authoritarianism, more government lock-down of our rights, less meaningful ability to participate in the doings of the "republic."

Unlike other, previous cultures, might we perhaps have the courage to go ahead and hang that "Welcome To Empire" sign?

So I guess we just keep on gnawing. First the heart, then the liver.

I've got extra. Wanna bite?



Get On The H.O.R.N.!
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www.headonradionetwork.com
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Most arguments link growth of Empire to the loss of liberties and/or democracy, and most philosophies of history build it primarily on the emergence and fate of the Roman Empire. WE tend to forget one much closer to our time, the British Empire, in which at least the core population gained MORE democracy and rights as the Empire expanded, and which went out in a burst of glory as the "subject peoples" gained their own freedom at the end of WWII, mostly peacefully.

History does contain disturbing parallels, but it sort of depends on where you look.

...this may be the best DU post I've ever read...it just sums things up so perfectly. Reading this gave *me* a sense of that "peace" you mentioned...maybe because my own life is having a major change... But yes. It's the Republic that matters, and if we can live to see it a little better, and work towards that...maybe it'll be enough. I've been reading a good deal about the Civil War era lately, and researching ancestors who fought--and a few who died--in that conflict...that gives everything a sense of perspective. Anyone who watches the "media"--or even reads too much of DU--can come to think the Republic is doomed...but it ain't necessarily so...:-)...

I become profoundly saddened?

because they're profoundly sad.

:hug:

equivocate
Main Entry:
equiv·o·cate Listen to the pronunciation of equivocate
Pronunciation:
\i-ˈkwi-və-ˌkāt\
Function:
intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
equiv·o·cat·ed; equiv·o·cat·ing
Date:
1590

1 : to use equivocal language especially with intent to deceive 2 : to avoid committing oneself in what one says

equivocal

Main Entry:
equiv·o·cal Listen to the pronunciation of equivocal
Pronunciation:
\i-ˈkwi-və-kəl\
Function:
adjective
Etymology:
Late Latin aequivocus, from aequi- equi- + voc-, vox voice — more at voice
Date:
1599

1 a: subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse <an equivocal statement> b: uncertain as an indication or sign <equivocal evidence>2 a: of uncertain nature or classification <equivocal shapes> b: of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing : undecided <an equivocal attitude> c: of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitude <equivocal behavior>

See also: equiv·o·ca·tor \-ˈkwi-və-ˌkā-tər\ noun

What other tricks can you do?

I can spin a dinner plate on my finger.

I can also wiggle my ears.

And I'm Batman, too.

Yup.

:P

of incoming congress-critters and newly elected presidents being led up the hall into a small room with an overhead lightbulb and being given an "orientation" talk by a stern looking individual in a suit: "Look, I know you're excited about your new position, but forget about all those promises you made to get elected . I don't care about your political views, they don't mean shit to me. I'm going to tell you how things are actually going to work here, so listen carefully. Coffee?"

"No matter what promises you make on the campaign trail - blah, blah, blah - when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist, capitalist scumfucks that got you in there, and this little screen comes down, and the guy says "Roll the film..."

"...and it's a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you've never seen before, which looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll...

"...And then the screen comes up, the lights come on, and they say to the new president, 'Any questions?'

"Just what my agenda is."

"First we bomb Baghdad."

"You got it!"

(quote from a mid-90s Hicks show)

(Bill Hicks is God)

I like to think that if I ever found myself in that position, I would "out" the whole pile of shit in a YouTube video and just take the bullet for the betterment of the country.

Keyboard heroics and altruism are easy..

It's funny to re-listen to the old Bill Hicks routines from the '90s, where he's making jokes about that idiot Bush and his war in Iraq....

When I say funny, of course, I mean sad. Liquor helps!

The twelve induostrialist scumfucks, I mean.

And then start to bring low the other 5000.

Impossible? Maybe not as hard as it sounds. They're all human, after, all, and almost all have vices or enthusiasms that make them vulnerable. What we need is an organized, dedicated, and-- need I say it--s*cr*t group to take advantage of these weaknesses, rather than leaving it up to Providence.

why?


Why should we simply accept what is?

Why do we keep falling in the same hole and being surprised that it is still there?

Why allow ourselves to be used to further agendas which are the polar opposite of what 'we' embrace?

Why simply buy into the tired old mantras? "Dancing with the whore"- "Can't turn things around overnight" "Can again be "America"?

What is America if it isn't YOU- and ME- and the courage to refuse to be used by a government to achieve ends that benefit the 'elite' few?

I believe you are wrong when you say we need war.

I believe you have a lot of company in that perspective- Impressive company- but that you are still dead wrong.

I don't believe that people voted for the IWR because 'we need' War- I believe they voted for it because they didn't have enough courage- They weren't willing to entertain 'hope'. To exercise the silly- terrifying- wonderful chance that there really IS a 'different' way- a 'better' way.
Like John Lennon said- the TRUTH he was willing to be hated for- shamed for- ridiculed for- laughed at for... even killed for-


War is a choice- it is ALWAYS a choice.
Human'kind' has continued to choose war because it is easier.
It is perversely 'satisfying' on some level.
It allows us to continue to avoid learning how to effectively manage our more uncomfortable human traits, those like anger/revenge/rage/guilt/arrogance/indigence.

War reveals us as the 'savage beasts' that we still are- not the highly evolved creatures we like to
believe ourselves to be. Creatures able to use reason, logic, and 'self-control' to rise above the need for brute force, coercion and violence to achieve our goals.

Refusing war takes incredible courage-
The willingness to sacrifice everything-
Not simply our human life, but the illusion of "being in control" -
Our core belief itself--
if we fail at war, we haven't lost the means to an end, we've simply failed in our endeavor-
If we fail at peace- if people continue to opt for the familiar addictive rut of using violence to achieve our objective/ get our way - then we must accept that a world where war becomes obsolete is impossible.

And if that is true, then what is the point of anything?

We don't have to dance with the whores- we don't have to dance at all. Enabling evil, is still evil. Being a co-dependent citizen of an imperialistic rogue nation, is still participating in wrong. If we aren't part of the solution- we are part of the problem.

The bottom line is- do we have the courage of our convictions? Are we willing to take a stand as individuals for what is right?- not just for us as 'Dems' or ' Americans' or even humans- but simply as creatures upon this earth?

Creatures whose individual actions have long lasting consequences. Our society should not force us to violate our own understanding of what we know to be 'right'.

we don't have to dance with the one what brung us-
but if we can't live with ourselves without pointing to the reasons we are complicit in doing wrong- and placing the responsibility anywhere but in our own hands-

why?

why live?



:shrug:
lunatic ravings-
peace~

A very lengthy multi-part series, well worth the read. If you have a five gallon bottle of anti-depressants, that is.

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/01/dominion-over-world-iii-open-door-to.html

There are only so many resources. And there are so many people. And there are those who would kill before they would lose the lifestyle they have. And that includes me and you.

Up until recently (that reads, up until the world population reached a certain size. One that was obviously large, and growing like a skyrocket) people fought wars for land and power. But suddenly we're fighting over resources. It happened when there were ten people in a cave, and one rabbit on the fire. And it may very well be that we're fighting over the same ironic thing. It looks like we've crowded ourselves onto this planet, and there isn't enough to go around. Although I must admit that there were far more resources per person during the cave dwelling era than there are to the number of people now.

So we've painted ourselves into a corner in several ways.

But the issue is that instead of providing for ourselves, we've begun to pay companies to do our work for us. And by doing so we've given them license to do just about anything in our names. And they got smart, and kept us from even knowing what they were doing in our names. At least until long enough after the dirty deeds that we would have forgotten, or don't care. Usually about thirty years.

So the bottom line is, by virtue of our numbers, and the lifestyle we are living, we are fueling corporations to run rampant all over the planet. I don't know why the World Trade Center towers came down. But I suspect highly that it has everything to do with exactly this. If countries were overthrowing our presidents and installing their own puppets, in order to extract the resources of our land, we'd probably be pretty angry. But since we are the ones using the resources...you can see how that all works.

We could use less. We could pay for what we use. We could share our wealth. We could have remained a smaller population of agrarians.

Those are just off the top of my head ramblings. And I have no attachment to them. In fact I would love to be wrong.

Circa 1972, I was a new mommy and wanted to used my head for something :) so I took a political science class. I'm a war baby with personal interest in WWII and all that followed, and in FDR's New Deal. I have never forgotten the professor's saying that the New Deal programs would not have continued to sustain us without the advent of WWII, and that it was the war economy that kept America from collapsing economically. And, as Eisenhower prophesied, we've been in thrall to military spending ever since.

While it may be true that our economy is basically continually propped up by the military/industrial complex, I keep remembering the way that factories were re-tooled very quickly during The War to produce weapons and airplanes, and the whole country got involved. And, fool that I am, I keep thinking that that same type of get-it-done ethic could be applied to new industries devoted to getting us away from a war-based economy and onto a program to produce alternative energies and the products that would use them.

I've heard that old thing about the railroad barons, who thought they were in the railroad business, but really they were in the transportation business. How did they make the transition? And how, likewise, can we make the transition from a war/oil-based economy to something sustainable? Only the most brilliant minds on the planet are asking that question!

The ethic from the Apollo 13 event was "Failure is not an option." We need to find that spirit as a nation, and refuse to accept the failure of our "leaders" in Washington. I don't know what it is that drives our Democratic candidates to show such cowardice in standing up to the controlled demolition of our democracy, but I do know that they took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, just as my father and all his fellows did in World War II, and that oath does not include an exit clause.

There are a lot of books out there now that tell us it's too late, that we face both economic and planetary collapse. There are all kinds of experts who back up this view. I own and have read a lot of those books. And there is a voice in my head that I too often listen to that says we're doomed, in some ways (and maybe being a little bit doomed is like being a little bit pregnant). Perhaps those views are right, but I prefer to throw in my lot with Al Gore, who says we have the tools to do the job. We simply need the will. And just as with the impeachment argument, if we don't make the effort, we are ensuring failure.

I am personally very familiar with the worldview of the Christian fundamentalists who want to inflict their rabid hate and ignorance on the whole world. I see that our Democratic candidates are more measured in their expressions of faith than any of the Republican candidates, but I want to be able to vote for a candidate who understands and honors the principle of separation of church and state. If their personal faith drives them to do right by the country, fine. I just don't want to be exposed to continual affirmations of personal faith, with an eye on the presidential prize. We are between a rock and a hard place for 2008, and as thoughtful people, it is important to keep the dialogue going about what we need to do to try to defeat the corporate forces that are pulling the strings of all our elected puppets, Dem and Repub alike.

It is terribly depressing to see our way of life dissolving before us in a slow-motion movie that we must just sit and watch. We have to figure out who the projectionist is! We have to do a controlled demolition of the theater. And we have to face the fact that we may be out on the street in the rain without an umbrella for a time -- maybe a long time.

So "why" and "how" are fellow travelers.

I don't think they are at all. Your passions are compelling and well articulated in my opinion. You also seem just on the brink of answering your own questions without the need for validation from anyone else. Perhaps then, if you are willing to look at things from yet an even larger perspective, lets say universally, you may well discover that when you argue with or resist reality; that is to say, what you currently observe, experience, and believe to be true, you are actually arguing with and resisting the entire universe according to the ancient Rishis, and is therefore probably not a good use of your time.

On the other hand, to clearly define your intentions and desires, while taking full responsibility for your actions, thoughts, and words, is precisely how change occurs. It's about the observance of subtle consciousness, as now acknowledged by quantum science.

As to Why live? Consider, that it was your choice to be here at precisely this time, that your presence at this time on earth is no accident, nor is it a random occurrence. Consider also that you have lived before, and will live again, and spiritually, there is no death, only transition. This means then, that All other persons on the earth have made the same choices, in the same absence of physical evidence or recall. As you seek to discover your Dharma, your true life purpose, you will change, and you will in ways sometimes so subtle as to not notice at first, change others.

I think it's a perfect time to acknowledge and accept that we will not see a political solution to our planets woe's in our life times, and the hope or belief that any candidate, from any party, could posses the ability to lead us all into the light is misplaced. The patience required in the absence of a foreseeable paradigm shift that William Pitt writes about with such insight, could well be the reason we are here, as we dedicate our time to passing it on, and on, and on ... until enough time has passed, and enough of us returning souls have perfected ourselves, enabling us to finish the job of never ending distruction leading us to never ending new creation.

Talk about Lunatic ravings!
Peace to you

Absolutely spot on, although I don't share the sense of optimism you imply at the end-- I don't think the dems are really different enough to slowly, painfully, get us out of this mess. I think they are slowly, painfully, getting us deeper into it. I think the differences between the dem and repub parties are becoming less and less. But your comments about the need for a war economy are spot on. Add that to an imperialist foreign policy that predates all of the events you cited, and you arrive at the present situation-- permanent war for permanent profits.

I'm going to bookmark it for re-reading, and send a link to my friends.

I'm older than most on this board; but, I still hope to see the beginning of change if not the end. One of the big problems in this struggle, is that it's very easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day survival issues and lose sight of the long-term goals. Of course, that's part of their game plan!

stay around to 'dance with the whore'. I've been fighting this stuff since the early '60s and am tired, and defeated. I plan to move from these shores and watch from afar. I want to live out my retirement without the battle. I want to live in peace.

And thank you. So much.

:hug:

Dear Mr. Pitt--

You say, among other things, that:

"This economy needs warfare, and will collapse without it. Both parties know this well enough, and so both parties work to keep the carousel whirling. Why did the vote for the IWR? Why do they seem listless about thwarting an Iran attack? Because the economy requires it."

I have seen this ... assertion posited several times over the last few years, and my question for you, or anyone who has an answer or a comment, is Why?

Why does this or any economy rely on the manufacture of war material? If it's a certain amount of money that's needed to somehow feed a designated percentage of this economy, why couldn't the same amount of money be spent on something else, like schools or bridges and have the same effect? Why, to keep the economy functioning, do we need, absolutely *have to*, build ships, planes, bombs, and DU ammunition?

That is my first question, and I look forward to any explanation you can offer.

Cheers,
Carol

""Any politician of either party who reaches national stature has, at some point before, signed on the dotted line agreeing to support and maintain this situation. The Democrats do this just as the Republicans do. Every president since Truman has done this. On this all-important point, there is truly no difference between the parties. ""

I'm still not sure what your gist is... that's just the way things are so why fret about it? glad you found your peace with this, but I can't.

But... it still takes all kinds to change things... it takes those from within, pushing in a new direction, and it also takes those on the outside... trying to force, bully, beg or cajole those on the inside into changing.

So... even though I know the answers, I'll still keep on asking them.

we need war because we evolved from chimps. not gorillas. we need war because violence raised us above those chimps. it has served us as a species for a few million of years. can we evolve beyond it? mass extinctions favor evolution. perhaps when the planet becomes nearly uninhabitable, it will be the old hippies that survive. we might as well hope, while we are standing around spinning our wheels.

to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

We each find, and experience our serenity in our own way.

The cowardice and complicity of the Dems since regaining the majority has been a bitter taste causing me much heartache, but has also given me the clarity of accepting that I cannot change this machine, not in my lifetime;

This clarity has given me the courage to continue to speak out on those issues I care about, especially the trampling of the Constitution. This clarity has also given me the courage to withdraw my support, financially and electorally from any candidate or party which lacks the courage to fight for the Constitution, that "goddamned piece of paper" that keeps the idea of America alive. Prior to the Bush administration, during the Cold War, when the Military Industrial complex was humming along, running the show, we still had the Constitution to fall back on. I'm not so sure we do anymore. Without the courage and integrity of those in power to uphold it, or the courage of those in the streets to overthrow those who won't uphold it, the Constitution may well be just a piece of paper.

Finally, this clarity has given me the courage to withdraw my tax support from the war machine and the Constitution trampling corporations, and their political lackeys, by immigrating to Canada (I expect to submit my paperwork next week). In a year or two, I will become, not an expatriate, but rather:

a Patriot-In-Exile.

I just hope I have the wisdom required to endure and adapt to this major change, and to cope with the uncertainty that lies ahead, both for me and for our country...

that is why democracy is being stifled, put on hold or whatever?

trying to really understand the thinking behind it. I think I did a better job this time around.

I do realize that changing our way of life will have a cost. But I think that it's perhaps not as bad as the cost will be for not changing it.

Is there a reason why we couldn't take all the money tied up in the military-industrial complex and use some of it to cushion the transition?

I need to come up with a research plan and this is just silly theorizing - making the hypothesis before collecting the data. It may be a completely wrong hypothesis, but oh well, at least I tried.

What if we took all the money that is now part of the war machine and redistributed it? Some could go to research into alternative energy sources and ways to make what we need without destroying the planet. Some could go to support and re-train the people who lost their jobs until they could get new ones. I'm sure that their knowledge and experience could be used in building the new infrastructure and various other new stuff that we would need.

One hopes that there would be enough left over for national health care and education. If there wasn't enough during the transition, I could live with that as long as we got health care to those most in need of it and national health care and education were the first priorities after the new economy got going.

And no, the transition wouldn't be instant, but I would hope that it could be completed or at least near to completion in my lifetime.

One thing that I hear over and over on Science Friday on NPR (is it bad that one of the main reasons I look forward to Friday is Science Friday?) is the idea of a carbon tax. I think that would be great. Incentive for corporations to clean up and revenue.

I think that the ideas are there. I know - it's just that old oligarchy standing in the way. Well - get rid of them. Our letters and phone calls and emails and marches that get ignored or misrepresented by the media aren't really helping. We need ideas there too.

I keep coming back to changing minds in your own sphere of influence but we need more than that.

I can feel a groundswell of change out there. It just needs to be tapped.

Damn it, Gore needs to run. But I admit that right now my magic 8 ball says "Ask again later" on that. We need something else. Something that bypasses the criminal media and gets right to people.

I think I do understand your post better now. I'm just not willing to sit back and wait and depend on people whose livelihoods depend on a broken system to fix the system. The much-fetishized founding fathers said to change the government when it didn't fit the people anymore, and it stopped fitting before I was born.

Also - I got lucky and was born with a permanent sense of calm and peace and I've been tending to it and growing it for the last couple of years. :)

The closest parallel to the MIC would be the space program. The defense contractors are often the same contractors who work on space efforts. So if you want to lower the defense budget, you take it out of defense and put it into the space program. It can be a more peaceful effort (assuming you don't develop space weapons). You can transform the MIC into something more beneficial to society.

And the engineering skills are transferable.

You get benefit for society through spinoffs and through scientific endeavors.

<edit to add> and you hire U.S. engineers for the work. No outsourcing or h1-b's. All manufacturing and R&D is done here. No outsourcing of parts.

once before. A lot of it masqueraded as "national defense" R & D but in actuality it went for space exploration, which consumed the dollars and materiels we're now blowing p or wearing out in Iraq with such abandon.

for use in spacecraft that we could use as alternative energy sources.

There is a lot of research that would spinoff to other (peaceful) uses.

<edit to add> and if we had good alternative energy sources, we wouldn't need the MIC to blow places and people up to get their oil.

The persistently serene are often seen as needing medication, or overdosed already. It is not a natural condition of mammals. Some psycho-babblists argue that it is natures 'shutdown' mechanism that dulls inevitable pain and death.

The search for 'serenity', especially in the old, is many times linked with the mistaken belief that somehow they will live longer, and die happier. Perhaps the first is possible, but the latter hope fails miserably. If such were the case then the man who was comatose for 30 years and then died, would have died the happiest man in history...I have grave doubts as to that conclusions veracity.

As you age, you cannot fight with the same vigor as youth, so you learn to pick your battles...ones involving principles generally win out over wars against petty bureaucratic bumblings. Dieing on the 'Battlefield of Principle' seems far more satisfying, than dying covered with a downfilled comforter in a four-poster at 2AM.

...or so it seems to me

:)