Day: May 3, 2016

What About Trump And Democracy

Today is the day we vote in Indiana….or is it Idaho….or maybe…..the Hell with it……somebody is voting somewhere.

The 2016 election has brought a lot of opinions especially when it comes to one Donald Trump…..it depends where you stand on the political spectrum on which of those opinions you will embrace…..

Never let it be said that I am not fair in my condemnation of ALL candidates……

But I think that some are missing the concept of democracy…..or “the will of the People”….right or wrong……

I read an interesting op-ed about Mr. Trump and democracy…..

The “conservative intelligentsia” is anything but intelligent when it comes to Donald Trump, writes John Feehery at the Hill. Among those he calls out is David Brooks of the New York Times, who last week called Trump’s candidacy a “Joe McCarthy moment” for the party. But Feehery also cites comments of a similar nature from the likes of George Will (see here), Michael Gerson (here), and Ross Douthat (here), all of whom seem to think that Trump is the personification of evil who will do long-term damage to the GOP unless stopped. “To these so-called smart people, I say: Stop being so stupid,” writes Feehery.

This opposition to Trump reveals “their biases against democracy and the will of the people,” he argues. Instead of knocking him down, they should pay more attention to why Trump is so popular, writes Feehery, who provides some theories of his own: Trump is a “real outsider who represents real change,” he has explicitly denounced the Iraq War as a mistake, and his economic message (“the middle class is getting screwed by the political class”) is resonating. Most Trump supporters “are by no means stupid, irrational, racist or anti-democratic,” writes Feehery. They’re just tired of the status quo and see Trump as the only candidate who can destroy it. Click for his full column. (Or for Andrew Sullivan’s opposing view.)

This is by NO means my endorsement of Trump in this election…..I found the article a good one and bit of a thought making piece…..

Plato thought democracies were especially susceptible to “tyranny” the longer they lasted and the more democratic they became, and the US seems to be in exactly the kind of “late-stage democracy” ripe for such a thing.

In conclusion, it should be noted that, in modern times, a democracy is considered one of the more ideal forms of government, considering the value many people tend to place on individual liberty and the freedom to choose one’s own path in life. However, Plato’s criticisms should be kept in mind when determining the merit of a democratic government. Oh, would it not be great to have a democracy of philosophers, who would pursue truth and wisdom! Alas, we are only human, and susceptible to many evils and lies. The trick is to prevent such ignorant people from becoming the majority. At times, it seems nigh impossible to do so; curse our stupidity!

(Matt Brazil)

“We Need More Troops”

I have written about the necessity of the reinstatement of the draft (conscription for those that have NO idea what the Draft is all about)…..I call for it because I feel that there is NO shared experience in war ……this country turns its back on our troops the first chance they get because they do not have to think about it….no one cares.

If you would like to check out what I had to say……

The US seems to be Hell bent on continuing war upon war……and if so then it will need to drastically change its way of think about the military….that is if they want a primo milita…

Source: Time To Re-Think Conscription? | Ace News Room

I have been writing about this since 2007…..

Things are not going well for the military, what with Iraq and Afghanistan and any other conflict that Bush wishes to engage in . US Troops are being extended an extra 4 months, the National Guard …

Source: Why No Draft? – In Saner Thought

This country is at war…….granted it is not a declared war but if troops die then it is a war……..and we enter into a new conflict almost monthly and we have only a finite amount of troops to use for these deployment…..

But no one in Washington seems to hear the call…..and they say that we need more troops…..

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has introduced a defense bill that would increase the U.S. Army by 45,000 soldiers.

Rep. Mac Thornberry’s version of the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Bill would provide money to add 20,000 soldiers to the active Army’s end-strength, bringing it to 480,000.

The bill would also add 15,000 to the National Guard and 10,000 to the Reserves, resulting in a Guard strength of 350,000 and a Reserve strength of 205,000. The panel was expected to approve the measure on Wednesday.

Under the President Barack Obama’s current proposed defense budget, the Army projects its end-strength to be at a total of 980,000 soldiers by fiscal 2018, including 450,000 for the active force, 335,000 for the Army National Guard and 195,000 for the Army Reserve.

But how will this increase be handled without a draft?

Oh they have a plan…….

Thornberry’s revised budget earmarks just over $2 billion in additional funding for the troop increase, according to language in the bill. That’s about $2.5 billion short of what the Army would need, according to Army senior leaders that have testified it will cost about $1 billion for every 10,000 soldiers.

“Where possible, Chairman Thornberry’s proposal cuts excessive or wasteful expenditures and rededicates those resources to urgent needs,” according to the bill’s summary. “Even with a vigorous re-prioritization of programs, the Committee was unable to make up essential shortages in the President’s budget and simultaneously provide a full year of contingency funding.

“The proposal is designed to restore strength to the force through readiness investments and agility through much needed reforms, while providing a more solid foundation for the next President to address actual national security needs,” it states

I love the thought process in DC….they are best called MORONS!

Here is a simple solution…..the draft is just inactive….re-activate and all this creative bullsh*t will not be necessary.

Simple solutions are always the best solutions.

 

Is There a 5th Estate?

We have heard all about the 5th column….those traitors that will work behind the scenes to destroy a state and its apparatus…..all those communist agents in the Us back in the 50’s and ’60’s……

Now that communism is dead what are the chances that there are those people working against the country’s best interests….is there any danger?

The questions is…..is there a 5th estate?

First we have the 3 major estates….the 3 branches of government and then there is the 4th estate, the media…..let me explain a bit better…..

The fourth estate is a term that positions the press (newspapers) as a fourth branch of government and one that is important to a functioning democracy.

The phrase is attributed to Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797), a British politician, as quoted in Thomas Carlyle’s book, “Heros and Hero Worship in History” (1841):

Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all.

We have our 4 estates….is it possible that there could be a 5th estate?

The Constitution provides for three branches of government: the executive, Congress, and the judiciary – but there have been a few additions lately. With the rise of mass communications, common parlance has designated the media as the “Fourth Estate,” because – in theory – it is supposed to act as a “watchdog” on the activities of the other three. (Although in practice, as we have seen, it often doesn’t work out that way.) And as America entered the age of empire, stepping out on the world stage and exerting its power, a development the Founders foresaw – and greatly feared – became a reality: the rise of foreign lobbyists, i.e. the Fifth Estate, as a power in our domestic politics.

Source: The Fifth Estate: Foreign Lobbyists – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

Lobbyists have an inordinate amount of influence over our political process…..and now thanx to the foreign powers of wealth….they are starting to determine what is best for this country through their influence over the legislative process.

Most Americans seem to think that they have some say on the process….while they do vote but it is only “gimme” so that the real power can go on unimpeded.

But don’t worry about that…..worry about those damn things that are in the media…..it is just easier that way.

Bernie Sanders isn’t a radical

The media and most of the Right wing keeps painting Bernie as some sort of radical……mainly because he is a ….wait for it…..socialist, a Democratic Socialist….the truth is he is NO radical.

Yes, I know what a radical is….I was doing the radical thing when most on social media was just a twinkle in the parent’s eye…..and Bernie is NO radical.

The idea that Sanders is an extremist is patently false — it’s the Republican movement that’s radical

All Sanders has done is challenge the gospel of neoliberalism, which has systematically gutted our country’s public institutions. America’s economy has been steadily deregulated since the 1980s, when President Reagan first surrendered to the privatization scheme of neoliberalism. What we’re left with now, as Sanders pointed out in that speech, is a system “which during the 1990s allowed Wall Street to spend $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to get deregulated. Then, ten years later, after the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior of Wall Street led to their collapse, it is a system which provided trillions in government aid to bail them out.” In other words, we now have socialism for the rich and free market capitalism for everyone else. This is a perverse inversion of the historical norm, and Sanders is right to attack it.

Source: Bernie Sanders isn’t a radical: Noam Chomsky is exactly right regarding how mainstream Bernie’s policies really are – Salon.com

Do I support Bernie?  Over anything the slimy Right has to offer then yes…..over Clinton then the answer is again yes…..will I be voting for Bernie in November….not a chance.

I have written many times where I differ from Bernie and most of it in the foreign policy that he is embracing……his policies will do little to make this a more peaceful world….or a safer one……our international entanglement will only get deeper under a Sanders presidency.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the “radical” tag for Bernie is pure BS!

Sorry to burst any bubbles or being a bummer……

Why NATO Has Become One of the Most Destructive Forces

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) began in 1949 as a first line defense against the rise and expansion of communism……since those early days it has expanded to become a first strike weapon the world over….and today is probably the most dangerous organization on the planet…..

Instead of providing security for its members it has become a major cause of the instability in the world…..

Communism is dead!  But yet NATO continues be a source of military action.  Can anyone explain this “mission creep” for NATO?

Actions in Afghanistan, Europe, and Libya have created insecurity rather than order.

Source: Why NATO Has Become One of the Most Destructive Forces on the Planet | Alternet

WORD!