Month: May 2016

The Civil War Inside the US Military

I have been writing a blog now for 10 years and I have always kept with my beliefs that we should not rush into conflict for any reason short of an attack on the nation proper……I can justify the invasion of Afghanistan but not the occupation for 14 years…..in all that time I have also been a keen observer of the budget battle especially the money that will be earmarked for the military or what we call the defense budget…..

This year is no different……I have been watching the battle for the budget on the Hill…..I have watched the propaganda machine go into full tilt boogey…..The Russian are coming seems to be the war cry…..

In early April, a battalion of senior military officials appeared before a Senate panel and testified that the US Army is “outranged and outgunned,” particularly in any future conflict with Russia. Arguing for a much bigger budget for the Army, they claimed that, absent a substantial increase in funding, the Russians would overtake us and, even scarier, “the army of the future will be too small to secure the nation.”

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! And before you know it, Brooklyn will be renamed Putingrad.

Source: The Civil War Inside the US Military – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com

It will be interesting to see where this budget, the final budget, will lead our military….will the armed conflicts continue to rise or will calmer heads prevail?

Any bets?

America’s Long War to Control the Middle East

The US has had its eyes on the Middle East for decades…….and its policies turned sour after they decided that Israel should be recognized after the announcement by the Jews.

Of course the necessity for oil also has the US struggling to keep oil producers like Saudi Arabia, UAE and others in their pockets.

Nothing undermines the American belief in military force. No matter how often its galloping about results in resentment and mayhem, the U.S. gets up again to do good elsewhere.

The conviction that invasion, bombing, and special forces benefit large swaths of the globe, while remaining consonant with a Platonic ideal of the national interest, runs deep in the American psyche. Like the poet Stevie Smith’s cat, the United States “likes to gallop about doing good.” The cat attacks and misses, sometimes injuring itself, but does not give up. It asks, as the U.S. should,

Source: Andrew Bacevich and America’s Long Misguided War to Control the Greater Middle East

An interesting piece……the US has been massaging the “rulers” of the various countries since the beginning of the Cold War…..actually longer but that would require me to go into a long historical perspective and we all would rather I not do that, right?

I’d put Bill ‘in charge of revitalizing the economy’

Oh Crap!

I have never heard 9 more terrifying words uttered.  It sent a shiver up my spine.

These words were spoken by candidate Hillary Clinton when asked what job would she have for her husband if she is elected…..

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is beginning to hint at what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, could have in her administration if elected president.

At a campaign stop in Fort Mitchell, Ky., Clinton said her husband would be “in charge of revitalizing the economy.”

Clinton said something similar at a campaign event in early May, saying she would bring him out of retirement to create jobs.

“He’s got more ideas a minute than anybody I know,” Clinton said. “Gotta put people back to work and make it happen. So we’re going to give it all we’ve got, absolute full-in 100 percent effort, because I worry we won’t recognize our country if we don’t do this.”

Now I know she wants history to be kind to her hubby but I do not have to be……Bubba’s signature policy NAFTA did more to kill the US manufacturing base than any policy before and his insistence that Glass-Steagall be repelled is what let banks go batcrap crazy that caused the economic collapse in 2007.

All I can say is that she is praying that the American voter has the attention span of a gnat and that they have the memory of a puppy.

People please before you vote for Clinton do a little reading or research and see what we got with the first Clinton in office……none of it is pretty.

Please do not let it happen again.

Decentralization: A Strategy For Liberty

I have always been fascinated with the way Libertarians think….I will admit that some of their stuff I can get on-board with….like the non-interventionism thing……I am not so sure about their economic outlook….I seems to me that it would allow the ideology to rape the poor worker and the country…..on economics I disagree and on social I tend to agree somewhat but not totally…..

This is an interesting piece that I thought my reader would like to read……it is an elective and not meant to be a required piece……

Hardcore libertarians sometimes criticize me because of my focus on the Constitution and political action at the state level to limit federal power. They argue that the American constitutional system will never bring about liberty, and that by working through government at any level, I undermine the cause of freedom.

I am sympathetic to the idea that “where government begins, your freedom ends,” and I believe some of the hardcore libertarians philosophical objections to the Constitution have merit. But to quote Murray Rothbard, “Libertarians must come to realize that parroting ultimate principles is not enough for coping with the real world.”

Source: Decentralization: A Strategy For Liberty | Michael Maharrey

Does anyone have any thoughts about Libertarians?   Please do not start with the Ayn Rand stuff…..I prefer to concentrate on the ideology and not that of a the drug addict with a big mouth….thank you.

Benghazi–The Way It Was

Benghazi?  You remember that tragic death of the US ambassador to Libya……and with his death a tidal wave of outrage by the GOP in Congress….knowing that Clinton was the SecDef at the time it was the perfect time to build case against her and of course the president…..and so the game began.

The Congress set about having an investigation into the attacks and the deaths…..and the game was a foot…….the Repubs and the Dems at each others throat…day after day….and after years of hearings and recriminations what has the Congress and the nation learned?

It actually is something that the Repubs would like for you NOT to know the answer…….

Two years after a special House committee started investigating the 2012 attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, the committee has yet to produce a report on its findings. But the political infighting is still going strong.

On Sunday Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, sent a scathing letter to the committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, complaining of “repeated, unnecessary, and ever-changing demands from the Department of Defense.” Cummings accused Republicans of ignoring statements from their own chief counsel, Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman, a retired 3-star general, who appears to think the U.S. military response on the night of the attack was appropriate.

Source: Benghazi Investigation Produces More Infighting and Few Results – ABC News

There is another way of looking at the event……

Source: Democrats: Republican lawyer backs White House on Benghazi | News , World | THE DAILY STAR

Since it is still a thing in DC and since it is still a waste of time and energy……let me leave you with another thought for your consideration….

The games our elected officials play…..and they waste your f*cking money.  Just what you elected them to do, right?

Here’s a thought….how about focusing on the bastards that may have had their fingers in the 9/11 attacks that killed more than the attack in Benghazi…..sorry….just a suggestion.

Donald Trump’s policy problems

I know that there are a few of my readers that support the Donald (I believe there is a pill for that…LOL) and I would like to post something on this candidate to help people understand where he is coming from on the different policies…..

I personally, do not support his in any way but there needs to be more information on his thoughts on the different policies…..most of us know the rhetoric and the applause lines but just where does he stand on the policies that are pressing the country?

Donald Trump rode a tidal wave of populism to the Republican nomination, but a President Trump would face a different reality: major limits on executive power and a stingy Congress that would block him at most every turn.

POLITICO deployed its policy experts to study a week’s worth of Trump commentary and decipher what he’s saying, how his ideas would work and how far he could really go with positions that are unorthodox at best, and often heretical to his party’s ideology.

Source: Donald Trump’s policy problems – POLITICO

It is possible that Trump will have an about face and actually grasp the problems and the policies of this country…..so far his rhetoric does not bode well for the nation.

But he is having a private meeting with the GOP’s Mr. Neocon, Kissinger….will it bring him around to their way of thinking?

Cannot wait to see how Trump “apologists” (how you toads like your fave label being used against you?) have to say about this…that is if they can think that fast.  My guess is that coherence is not one of their strong suits.  Most have no original thoughts they just follow the moron with the biggest mouth…yeah that is always best for the country, huh?

In The Age Of Information

I do a lot of research daily…..when I decide to write a piece I try to get as much information as I can…..it is what one must do when preparing to teach a class or write an informative article……or one could just regurgitate the mindless ramblings of “false prophets”………

“The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.”
“Here is true immorality:  ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.”  Flaubert
“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.” (So true these days)
But my favorite quote is…..”Stupidity Is The Deliberate Cultivation of Ignorance”

I got this in a Tweet the other day….and it fits perfectly with the way I feel…..

And too few wise choices are being made these days.

Moderate Democrat Versus Extremist Republican

If the two “presumptive” nominees are the two candidates that the American people will have to choose from this November then we have a repeat of the 1964 election…….when the moderate Dem, Johnson was facing off against the extremist Repub, Goldwater….

Larry Wines: “They told me if I voted for Goldwater in 1964 that there would be racial violence in the streets and a major war in Southeast Asia. And you know what? I did, and they were right!” Goldwater-Johnson Election

The popular perception of GOP nominee Barry Goldwater as a right-wing extremist who would drop nukes in Vietnam and undo the hard-fought gains of civil rights. LBJ, the ruthless political hack with every kind of insider connection, including big money, running as “the experienced moderate” who talks diplomacy but has a record favoring military incursion.

Trump, the internationally dangerous xenophobe who threatens to use nukes and courts violence at his rallies. Hillary, the ruthless political hack with every kind of insider connection including big money, running as “the experienced moderate” who talks diplomacy but has a record favoring military incursion.

Source: Moderate Democrat Versus Extremist Republican: 1964 All Over Again? – LA Progressive

As usual I have to give that damn historical perspective…..you can curse or thank me….but you did learn something from the experience.

You are welcome!

Pulling a “Mercedes”……

As my last post of the day….I will venture into the world of Formula One racing…..it is my guilty pleasure….I spend so much time researching and analyzing that I need something to break my days up….Formula One is just that time for me to sit back and enjoy.

This post will not have usual informative stuff…this one is a personal thing that I need to write about…..

From a very young age when I was living in Europe I became a fan of Formula One racing….especially Team Ferrari……those were the days when their were no sponsorship except for the company that built the car and NO multi-million dollar driver contracts……

The was 1960 and Ferrari was all the rage on the tracks….my driver of choice was Wolfgang von Trips….and no he had nothing to do with the “Sound Of Music”….he was an excellent driver and in 1961 he was in the lead in points for the World Championship with he was killed at the Italian Gran Prix at Monza…..while my driver was gone I never wavered from Team Ferrari and am still rooting for them……….

(this is when racing was racing and not some techno blood bath)

Now that brings us to this year…..Ferrari is playing second fiddle to Mercedes as it has for a couple of years and I have been beside myself….is it the car….or the driver…or the massive amount of technology…..maybe it is the constantly changes rules of the race…..anyway it is disconcerting to me…..but it will NEVER make me jump ship from Ferrari.

Now it brings me to yesterday’s race, 2016 Spanish Gran Prix……

The favorite to win the Gran Prix was Nico Rosberg who drives for Mercedes and next would be Hamilton who also drives for Mercedes…My guys for Ferrari were off their game this year so far…..

Now for the #GoingMercerdes……one the first lap the two Mercedes drivers tried to be cute and took each other out of the race completely…..giving the win to Red Bull and Ferrari finishes second and third……

Needless to say I was laughing my ass off and the rest of the race was good but just the fact that the ego idiots could not let their egos go they ruined the chance for Mercedes to have a sweep of the Gran Prixs which has NEVER been done in the history of the sport.

So I am trying to start a trend for now on when teammates screw the whole team because of egos it should go down as #GoingMercedes.

(Sorry I cannot provide shots of the wreck…..copyrights and all that shit)……but if you would like to read about the wreck…..

http://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/36297948

In case you are wondering…….I am still laughing my ass off……that was one of the most bone head moves I have ever since in all my years of Formula One….

Empire’s Double Edged Sword: Global Military + NGOs

It seems that the world is at war….not necessarily a world war but rather a bunch of small conflicts that do not seem to make much sense…..but in a grand scale it makes perfect sense……we have a global military (NATO) and a whole bunch of non-governmental organizations (NGOs)….that are roaming the planet looking for fresh sources of conflict….

This press is a detailed look at the world today with a historical perspective…..it is well worth the time it will take to read the entire piece…plus there are some excellent videos that the reader can watch about the situation in the world today…..it is well worth the time investment…(trust me)…..

The British Empire didn’t just have a fleet that projected its hegemonic will across the planet, it possessed financial networks to consolidate global economic power, and system administrators to ensure the endless efficient flow of resources from distant lands back to London and into the pockets of England’s monied elite. It was a well oiled machine, refined by centuries of experience.

While every schoolchild learns about the British Empire, it seems a common modern-day political malady for adults to believe that reality is organized as their history books were in school – in neat well defined chapters. This leads to the common misconception that the age of imperialism is somehow a closed-chapter in human history. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Imperialism did not go extinct. It simply evolved.

Source: Land Destroyer: Empire’s Double Edged Sword: Global Military + NGOs