War is a Racket
by Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient Major General Smedley D. Butler - USMC Retired
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
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A classic. Why the war as racket industry continues is a matter of fevered speculation right up there with the mystery of why Latinos and African-Americans supporting the GOP.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Crystal Ball Time
Richest Americans’ Income Doubled as Tax Rate Slashed
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ar5uxG_wV87A&refer=us
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new IRS data show.
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It’s Theirs and They’re Not Apologizing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/nyregion/31bonuses.html?ref=business
"On Main Street, 'bonus' sounds like a gift," he said. "But it’s part of the compensation structure of Wall Street. Say I’m a banker and I created $30 million. I should get a part of that."
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What can one say in this face of naked, violently agressive greed?
As the days pass, I am less and less hopeful about our ability to maintain the peaceful continuance of the status quo.
Here are two more bits:
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Seriously?
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/2364
It’s one thing for me to make bizarre speculations about the future; I’m nobody. It’s quite another to see a very similar ‘prediction’ show up in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Although, thanks largely to conservative gasbags, there has been some rumblings floating around the net on the topic of a second US Civil War.
Which is to wonder if the relative handful of conservatives would consider a ‘revolt’ against their ‘free market ideology’ as an issue anyone other than the investor class would be willing to defend?
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As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
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Pick up the pace Obama and Dems in congress, the future will not wait with empty bellies. Move fast, move boldly - you need to make up something like 20-30 million jobs and truly remake the economy of the U.S. Halfway measures will find you on the wrong side of history.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ar5uxG_wV87A&refer=us
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The average tax rate paid by the richest 400 Americans fell by a third to 17.2 percent through the first six years of the Bush administration and their average income doubled to $263.3 million, new IRS data show.
------
It’s Theirs and They’re Not Apologizing
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/nyregion/31bonuses.html?ref=business
"On Main Street, 'bonus' sounds like a gift," he said. "But it’s part of the compensation structure of Wall Street. Say I’m a banker and I created $30 million. I should get a part of that."
------
What can one say in this face of naked, violently agressive greed?
As the days pass, I am less and less hopeful about our ability to maintain the peaceful continuance of the status quo.
Here are two more bits:
------
Seriously?
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/2364
It’s one thing for me to make bizarre speculations about the future; I’m nobody. It’s quite another to see a very similar ‘prediction’ show up in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.
Although, thanks largely to conservative gasbags, there has been some rumblings floating around the net on the topic of a second US Civil War.
Which is to wonder if the relative handful of conservatives would consider a ‘revolt’ against their ‘free market ideology’ as an issue anyone other than the investor class would be willing to defend?
------
As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.
In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.
------
Pick up the pace Obama and Dems in congress, the future will not wait with empty bellies. Move fast, move boldly - you need to make up something like 20-30 million jobs and truly remake the economy of the U.S. Halfway measures will find you on the wrong side of history.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Health Care Now
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/opinion/30krugman.html?_r=3
The whole world is in recession. But the United States is the only wealthy country in which the economic catastrophe will also be a health care catastrophe — in which millions of people will lose their health insurance along with their jobs, and therefore lose access to essential care.
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...Very timely, very accurate, very right on target.
The whole world is in recession. But the United States is the only wealthy country in which the economic catastrophe will also be a health care catastrophe — in which millions of people will lose their health insurance along with their jobs, and therefore lose access to essential care.
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...Very timely, very accurate, very right on target.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Iraqi Freedom at Last!
A sofa-sized shoe monument was unveiled today in Tikrit - the hometown of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein - in honor of the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at Bush last month during a Baghdad new conference.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01292009/news/worldnews/bush_shoe_throwing_incident_inspires_wor_152589.htm
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Well, that's enough freedom for me. Can we get the fuck out of Iraq now?
"Blue Dog" Dems?
Okay, now - seriously - what the fucking hell is a "blue dog" Democrat?
Democrats are the party at the center, so if there is something more centrist than that I guess it's midpoint from the true center toward the extreme right.
And you know what? That shit is not going to help us out of this jam. This new bailout/TRAP/whatever plan is an epic fail. Too little, far too late. And with tax cuts out the ass, it simply makes no sense.
If I get to keep $1000 in taxes do you know what I won't be doing with it? Spending it on shit I don't need. A rich man will spend even less because he needs nothing at all.
I have seen the future - a possible future - and it looks just like this:
People need jobs. And more than a mere 3 million at that. We need to create more than just the jobs that have been officially lost already. We need to bolster the economy after 8 years of calamitous bullshit that has left people so far out of reach that they are no longer even counted. We need to create more jobs than what would have been part of a natural expansion in the economy had things progressed better than at present. The local economies range from 9-14% unemployment officially - that's actually a good deal worse in reality because the numbers of the uncounted unemployed and under-employed probably double those percentages.
We should be aiming to create 10 million jobs and then be satisfied to have created only 7 or 8 million instead.
[Edit: You know, I was being far too optimistic when I wrote this yesterday. I think the numbers under Bush were wildly manipulated to reflect whatever the White House criminals wanted it to reflect. I'm not going to run the numbers like an expert, I'm just going to claim that moderate job growth grows at a rate of 2% per annum, or 3-4 million jobs a year. Over 8 Years time that's 24-32 million jobs that need to be created on top of the ones we are shedding like crazy right now. What that means is that the bullshit stimulus plan that is being argued over is really quite weak even if it meets its goals. We need much more than that. And I think an absolutely necessary part of the equation will be some kind of single payer healthcare or universal medicare. That would put people to work and make us more attractive to manufacturers who don't want to hassle over bennies.]
These fucking politicians are haggling at numbers with the death of the status quo at stake. You know, I might do very well after a bloody revolution sweeps across this land. My head will not end up on a pike, as has been repeated throughout history. Up until now it's just been peaceful demonstrations that have been turned into riots by cops wearing riot gear and firing into crowds with rubber bullets. Soon we shall have true riots where the people are actually armed and motherfucking dangerous. The cops that even try to stop that will not fare very well. We haven't seen true riots in this country to know any better.
Dear Dems - stop trying to appease the wrong quarter, the GOP will never budge an inch anyway. You should fear your constituency more. When they get hungry enough, the blood of tyrants will overfill our sewers.
I love peace. I'd rather that never happened and that a peaceful solution could be found out of this mess. The sacrifices cannot all come from the bottom of society this time. When I hear of $18 billion of bonuses on Wall Street again this year I know that the people at the bottom are getting ferociously angry.
This may not end well...
Democrats are the party at the center, so if there is something more centrist than that I guess it's midpoint from the true center toward the extreme right.
And you know what? That shit is not going to help us out of this jam. This new bailout/TRAP/whatever plan is an epic fail. Too little, far too late. And with tax cuts out the ass, it simply makes no sense.
If I get to keep $1000 in taxes do you know what I won't be doing with it? Spending it on shit I don't need. A rich man will spend even less because he needs nothing at all.
I have seen the future - a possible future - and it looks just like this:
People need jobs. And more than a mere 3 million at that. We need to create more than just the jobs that have been officially lost already. We need to bolster the economy after 8 years of calamitous bullshit that has left people so far out of reach that they are no longer even counted. We need to create more jobs than what would have been part of a natural expansion in the economy had things progressed better than at present. The local economies range from 9-14% unemployment officially - that's actually a good deal worse in reality because the numbers of the uncounted unemployed and under-employed probably double those percentages.
We should be aiming to create 10 million jobs and then be satisfied to have created only 7 or 8 million instead.
[Edit: You know, I was being far too optimistic when I wrote this yesterday. I think the numbers under Bush were wildly manipulated to reflect whatever the White House criminals wanted it to reflect. I'm not going to run the numbers like an expert, I'm just going to claim that moderate job growth grows at a rate of 2% per annum, or 3-4 million jobs a year. Over 8 Years time that's 24-32 million jobs that need to be created on top of the ones we are shedding like crazy right now. What that means is that the bullshit stimulus plan that is being argued over is really quite weak even if it meets its goals. We need much more than that. And I think an absolutely necessary part of the equation will be some kind of single payer healthcare or universal medicare. That would put people to work and make us more attractive to manufacturers who don't want to hassle over bennies.]
These fucking politicians are haggling at numbers with the death of the status quo at stake. You know, I might do very well after a bloody revolution sweeps across this land. My head will not end up on a pike, as has been repeated throughout history. Up until now it's just been peaceful demonstrations that have been turned into riots by cops wearing riot gear and firing into crowds with rubber bullets. Soon we shall have true riots where the people are actually armed and motherfucking dangerous. The cops that even try to stop that will not fare very well. We haven't seen true riots in this country to know any better.
Dear Dems - stop trying to appease the wrong quarter, the GOP will never budge an inch anyway. You should fear your constituency more. When they get hungry enough, the blood of tyrants will overfill our sewers.
I love peace. I'd rather that never happened and that a peaceful solution could be found out of this mess. The sacrifices cannot all come from the bottom of society this time. When I hear of $18 billion of bonuses on Wall Street again this year I know that the people at the bottom are getting ferociously angry.
This may not end well...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Obama Sucking GOP Cock
Maddow, Sirota on Stimulus Package
------
The WSJ looks very bad on this. In truth, it differs very little from most of the major media channels. This is journalism? I mean, I could pull made up shit out of my ass as easily as anyone.
A few days ago Obama supposedly reminded the GOP that he won the election and that the GOP needed to come around and side with the Democrats on the stimulus package. Ever since all I hear about is how the stimulus package - which needs to be bold and decisive in creating new jobs - is being watered down to appease the GOP instead. We need jobs not tax cuts. Tax cuts are voodoo economics all over again.
Here's some advice Prez Obama: grow a pair and get it done! I voted for you, man. Please don't just be the GOP's house negro.
"Trickle down" shit doesn't work. We need to float from the bottom.
------
The WSJ looks very bad on this. In truth, it differs very little from most of the major media channels. This is journalism? I mean, I could pull made up shit out of my ass as easily as anyone.
A few days ago Obama supposedly reminded the GOP that he won the election and that the GOP needed to come around and side with the Democrats on the stimulus package. Ever since all I hear about is how the stimulus package - which needs to be bold and decisive in creating new jobs - is being watered down to appease the GOP instead. We need jobs not tax cuts. Tax cuts are voodoo economics all over again.
Here's some advice Prez Obama: grow a pair and get it done! I voted for you, man. Please don't just be the GOP's house negro.
"Trickle down" shit doesn't work. We need to float from the bottom.
HFCS: Now with Mercury!
Our Melamine: There's Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup, and the FDA Has Known for Years
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-hatfield/our-melamine-theres-mercu_b_161334.html
What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers' health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup, and has been sitting on this information since 2005.
Here's the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf): The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal.
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Everywhere one turns there is mounting evidence that you simply cannot trust anyone else with food safety. The government is to be trusted least of all. Corporations buy and sell the government every fucking day.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-hatfield/our-melamine-theres-mercu_b_161334.html
What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of high fructose corn syrup would put consumers' health at risk, but that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup, and has been sitting on this information since 2005.
Here's the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf): The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in 2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples tested positive for the heavy metal.
------
Everywhere one turns there is mounting evidence that you simply cannot trust anyone else with food safety. The government is to be trusted least of all. Corporations buy and sell the government every fucking day.
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