I have reported the deaths of these brave soldiers and I post again because we need to look into the eyes of those we send to die……
Six Green Berets lost their lives between Nov. 2 and 4 an especially deadly week that saw three separate deadly incidents for the Special Forces community.
Source: Army Special Forces hit hard with six deaths in three days
The 2016 election has been the most pro-war election that I have witnessed in my many years (that’s right I am an old fart)…….regardless who wins this stupid thing the US is poised for a generation more of war and wars…..
If we cannot vote for a person to be president that could end all this lame ass interventionism then how can we fight against the war hawks and their handlers, the M-IC?
If Hillary Clinton hangs on to win the presidency, liberal Democrats have vowed to block her appointment of Wall Street-friendly officials to key Cabinet and sub-Cabinet jobs. But there has been little organized resistance to her choosing hawkish foreign policy advisers.
Indeed, Washington’s foreign policy establishment has purged almost anyone who isn’t part of the neoconservative/liberal-interventionist “group think.” That’s why pretty much everyone who “matters” agrees about the need to push around Russia, China, Syria, Iran, etc.
Reflecting that attitude, Sunday’s lead editorial in the neocon Washington Post hailed the broad consensus within the Establishment for more warlike actions once President Obama is gone, taking with him what the Post calls Obama’s “self-defeating passivity.”
Source: Who Will Weed Out the Warmongers? – Consortiumnews
One idea is to defeat the neocons at home….sweep this sort of interventionism from the halls of Congress……
The American Conservative has taken this question to task……
Back in June, I identified five incumbent senators with very hawkish foreign policy records that faced difficult re-election bids or had announced an intention to retire. Of the five I named, four are trailing their challengers or in very competitive races: Mark Kirk of Illinois, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Marco Rubio of Florida. The four Republicans were elected to the Senate in the 2010 wave year, and they were all elected in purple or blue states. Even if Trump weren’t the nominee, they would still have been facing a larger electorate in a presidential year in states that are more likely than not to vote for the Democratic nominee for president. Rubio has the best chance of those four to win, and that follows his decision to renege on his earlier pledge not to seek re-election. The fifth senator I mentioned was John McCain, who seemed to be struggling earlier in the year but has since opened up a substantial lead over his challenger. Unlike the other four, McCain isn’t seeking re-election for the first time, and `he is running a traditionally much more Republican state. While Kirk and Johnson appear to be heading to defeat next week, McCain seems to be safe. The other two are close enough that it’s hard to say what will happen.
Source: Endangered Hawk Watch | The American Conservative
It is time for the American voter to remove their heads from whatever candidate’s ass…..and start considering the money and man power that is being wasted on conflicts that have NO value to the population of this country.
Time to vote anyone with the war hawk mentality out of government and look for people that will put the country first and the M-IC second.
Lots of talk about “poll watchers” or those that may try to intimidate voters as they try to vote……
If this happens to you….what should you do?
Simple as using your phone……
If you are reading this then I am still out….I programed it to be published if I had not returned by noon…..
There has been lots of jaw flapping this election about voting rights….that right that many of us take for granted but do you really know how hard it was to get the right?
That’s right election day and another one of my historic perspectives….take a stroll through American history and see about your right to vote……
A history of voting rights in America.
Source: Who got the right to vote when?
sad that a publication knows more about American voting rights than most Americans…..go figure!
The day has finally arrived….maybe this long nightmare of lies and unrealistic promises will come to a close…..but first a little music before you head out……
There is no secret here that I voted for Stein and with every post I have explained why I am not voting for one of the two major players…..I have received push back from some on my choice which does not matter for I made my choice and did what I said I would do…voted for the person that I think would be the best for the country and its people……
With all that said I ran across an article by a person that explained why they were voting for Dr. Jill Stein and in more eloquent words explains the reasons that I chose to do so…….and yes I know that she is a flawed candidate….but to me way less so than the other two……
Keep in mind that this was written during the highly contested primaries…..
A dire prospect I’ve long anticipated became reality last week: Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont-turned-Democratic presidential candidate, endorsed Hillary Clinton ahead of the Democratic National Convention.
Even as the system crumbled around them, Sanders’ millions of supporters have done work that’s nothing short of miraculous. Their fight against the party establishment and that establishment’s friends in the corporate media brought Sanders closer to victory than many thought possible and heightened awareness around crucial issues like economic inequality and the corruption of our democracy.
To continue to force the gears of political change to turn, we can’t just hold our noses and vote for Clinton or sit this one out and wait another four years for a revolution.
Source: Why I’m Choosing Peace & Voting Jill Stein For President
The one leading indicator for me was when Jill Stein promises to re-invest the billions wasted on America’s foreign policy into job creation and universal healthcare.
I am pleased with my vote….are you?
(via Twitter)
I’m headed out now to see what is happening at the polls around my area….a bit of rain for the first time in 75 days…..gonna be messy out.
Today is the day that so many have been waiting to arrive….they get to sit on the edge of their chair and pray that their person will win the White House and the country will magically be transformed into this “wonderland” that has been promised for 200 years and yet somehow has eluded the possibility altogether.
The media and its pundits have their polls and opinion and thanx to them this has become the biggest shit storm in a century.
Then there is all the faux comments about the election being rigged…..personally I think it is just a set up so when one loses they have an excuse to feed the flames of whiny voters……but not to be out done the media has come up with a “brilliant” plan to help them drive that accusation as well as everything else about this election….
If misery and politics make strange bedfellows, their Election 2016 love child in the Fourth Estate is a nascent project called Electionland. As Politico reports, major media outlets are abandoning the time-honored practice of scooping each other in order to combine reporting forces in the name of making sure Election Day is as clean as possible. “It’s an entire national newsroom, essentially only looking at problems facing people who vote,” says a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica, the nonprofit which gave birth to Electionland earlier this year and was quickly joined by the likes of the New York Times,USA Today, and Google News Lab, as well as scores of more regional media outlets like the Arizona Republic, Miami Herald, and the Virginian-Pilot.
Notable among those who declined to partner up: CNN and the Associated Press. Yet it’s what Quartz calls “an unprecedented gathering of journalists,” and includes newsrooms set up at City University of New York and at 13 journalism schools. On Tuesday, Electionland will watch social media, Google search trends, and data from the Election Protection project, as well as receive reports from reporters on the ground. “This is a really interesting experiment,” says a politics editor at USA Today. “I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work. I don’t think any of us do. It seems like the right thing to do.” Adds Snopes’ managing editor: “It’s going to be a sh– show.”
To me this sounds like yet another attempt for the media to control the news cycle as they have done for decades with their polls and pundits…..
And then there is this bit of “news”……about exit polls……
In the old days (meaning before this election), results from exit polls weren’t released by the news groups until all polls had closed. But thanks to a joint initiative via Slate, Vice News, and a company called Votecastr, how exit polls are handled this time around will be a “dramatic departure,” Politico reports. This “unprecedented Election Day experiment,” as Slate puts it, will offer real-time projections of who’s ahead in the polls at any given time in seven battleground states. “We’re hoping to fill in the 24-hour void between the last pre-election poll analysis and the counting of the votes with data that can begin to answer the heretofore unanswerable question: Who’s actually voting?” Sasha Issenberg of Votecastr tells Politico. The effort will cover Florida, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as well as a modified look at Colorado’s results.
But Votecastr is courting controversy, as experts fret that word of who’s pulling ahead minute by minute could affect voter turnout. “I’m profoundly uncomfortable with characterizing election results during Election Day,” a member of the ABC News “decision desk” told the New York Times in September, when the project was announced. But Slate notes that feared alteration of voter turnout is an “unproven theory,” and Issenberg says voters keeping an eye on Votecastr—manned by both Democratic and GOP data experts—are already bombarded by pre-Election Day polls and stats. “Why should information on Election Day itself be held to a different standard than on the day before it?” he tells Politico. Read Slate’s in-depth explainer.
I do not like this stuff…the MSM is becoming too involved in the voting process when they should be reporting not creating……
But that is just my thoughts.
First, no this is not a post about Lenin’s famous pamphlet by the same name……..
This election has proven to be the election that has nothing to offer the people of this country but more and more interventionism….NO where is there a candidate with the exception of 3rd party candidates that has anything to say other than more….more….more to mindless interventionism.
They are, the two major ones, in bed with the defense contractors of the M-IC…..
How can this change?
In the midst of an election in which the issues are largely ignored in favor of sensationalism and smears, the anti-interventionist voter is pretty much at sea. Hillary Clinton’s demagogic Russia-baiting of Trump as a Kremlin “puppet” augurs a foreign policy that will take us back to the arctic winter of the cold war, circa 1950. On the other hand, the GOP nominee, for all his encouraging “America first” rhetoric and his stated unwillingness to get into another arms race with the former Soviet Union, would likely take us into other quagmires – ISIS, China, Iran – and, in any event, cannot be trusted.
So what is to be done?
The first thing is to disabuse yourself of the notion that any politician or political party currently prominent will magically get us out of the business of Empire. This isn’t to say that political action is wrong, or ineffective – far from it. What I’m saying is that it is up to us to build a movement out of which a new politics of peace and liberty can be nurtured and brought to maturity.
Source: What Is To Be Done? – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com
American people need to stand up and start worrying about the future and the problems that all the nation’s interventionism has created….it is a vicious cycle that needs breaking and only the voter can do it…..
Enough said?
I have been saying for the start of this election cycle that there was NO one that had any idea about how to be a leader on the world stage. And so far I have seen leader from either of the two nominees…..
Foreign policy will be big this time around…there is so much crap going on in the world and our choices for handling these situations are limited and not looking so good……
Which candidates show the leadership this country desperately needs?
Let’s start with the GOP candidate for president, Donald Trump……
Many downwardly mobile Americans are confused about what happened to them, which explains the attraction of Donald Trump, who offers few coherent solutions but may have a lasting impact on U.S. relations with the world,
Donald Trump most likely will not be elected President. Still, his historic campaign has sent shock waves through the American body politic. All are asking what it means and what it portends. The focus is on America at home rather than abroad. Foreign policy issues have been overshadowed by anxious domestic concerns.
Moreover, Trump never formulated a coherent view of international issues. Like the average guy, he simply spat out whatever thoughts passed through his head as he had caught snippets of Fox News. Any attempt to discern logic and strategy from Trump’s disjointed exclamations proves frustrating.
Source: A Lasting Trump Stamp on Foreign Policy – Consortiumnews
Nothing about Trump fills me with confidence.
How about the Dems choice, Hillary Clinton?
Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential nominee, has derided “Don’t do stupid stuff” as a worthless organizing principle of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
But her substitute of “Doing stupid stuff” is even worse.
As Secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s first term, Ms. Clinton single-handedly compounded problems of international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, war, refugees, and human rights from North Korea and China to South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to Europe and Russia.
In sum, Ms. Clinton foreign policy makes former President George W. Bush look like a Talleyrand, Metternich, or Bismarck.
Source: Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Policy: Doing Stupid Stuff | Huffington Post
Another dud in the making…..confidence at ZERO!
Just maybe it is time to re-think the term “leadership”…….
As a retired lieutenant colonel for the U.S. Army, I want to be positive. Even when I’ve identified major conceptual and practical failures in the conduct of American foreign and military policy, I’ve suggested alternatives that could improve the situation. But when looking at the state of our foreign policy in this moment, and given how entrenched the foreign-policy elite in Washington has become, a rational optimism is getting more and more difficult to find.
In practice, the current administration tries to keep a lid on problems by applying limited military power—at least regarding troop levels—over large sections of the globe. These military operations are tactical in nature, designed to achieve small-scale results, without the consideration of how or even whether they support some larger strategic objective.
Source: Let’s Rethink What ‘Leadership’ Means in Foreign Policy | The American Conservative
With confidence lacking there is only one thought that comes to mind……on the international stage this country is so screwed!
If you are worried about the trajectory of this country….then take the title seriously…….
It is less than two months from the election…..it is time for the voter to pull their head out of their butt and pick a candidate….one that has the best interest of the country at heart….
Yes, I know…..I was a supporter of Bernie Sanders at least originally…..he was a progressive choice to support against the neocon Clinton……and I sure as Hell was not going to support anything on the GOP side….a biggest bunch of egocentric crack pots on the planet.
But in case you have any misconceptions about Bernie……
New aggregated poll data from hundreds of polls nationwide have delivered Clinton and Trump the lowest favorable ratings of presidential candidates since polls began 30 years ago.
Clinton’s favorability rating has slumped to 41% among all eligible voters, according to the Huffington Post, while Trump’s remains steady at a low 36%.
Sanders meanwhile has surged to his highest favorable rating of the election season. His 53.4% favorable rating is so far ahead of both candidates it suggests that he would trounce them both and win the election in a landslide if it was held today.
Source: Polls Shows Bernie Sanders Would Win Election By Landslide | Your News Wire
Now that Bernie has decided to drink the “unity” kool-aid and endorse Clinton I have to find an alternative……and now I am thinking Green……
If you are a true progressive and do not know what to do this election…then maybe a look at a good alternative will help……
We are grassroots activists, environmentalists, advocates for social justice, nonviolent resisters and regular citizens who’ve had enough of corporate-dominated politics. Government must be part of the solution, but when it’s controlled by the 1%, it’s part of the problem. The longer we wait for change, the harder it gets. Don’t stay home on election day. Vote Green.
Source: www.gp.org
The Green Party candidate for president is Dr. Jill Stein….she is a progressive and a person that actually has a vision for the United States…..unlike our two major party candidates…..
I recently read a good debate on why us progressives should not support Clinton in her bid…..
After a tension-filled opening day of the Democratic National Convention that saw Senator Bernie Sanders endorse his former rival Hillary Clinton, we host a debate between Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and Ben Jealous, former NAACP president and CEO and a Bernie Sanders surrogate.
She made, to my mind, excellent reason why we should run from the candidacy of Hillary Clinton…..
There is still time for you, the voter, to check out a real alternative to the raging bullshit of the two major parties……
After listening to Dr. Stein at the townhall on CNN she said one thing that made my choice easy….
Americans who tuned into CNN’s Green Party town hall last night were exposed to political ideas and analyses that are rarely given airtime on mainstream news networks.
Moderated by CNN host Chris Cuomo, the town hall allowed people in the audience to ask questions of Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka.
An audience member identifying herself as a US army veteran expressed dismay at Stein’s support for the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to hold Israel accountable for ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians.
“Why do you single out Israel being that they are a democratic ally to us?” she asked, reciting a standard pro-Israel talking point. “Why don’t you do the same for other Middle Eastern States, many of which are committing horrific crimes and abuse of people?”
Source: No special treatment for Israel, Jill Stein says | The Electronic Intifada
Finally a candidate that does not kiss Israeli ass!
Is there a reason to vote Green?
Source: Time to Vote for a Third Party? – LA Progressive
If you as a voter is still on the fence for this election…may I suggest that you check out the Green Party platform…..
Source: Jill Stein on The Issues – Campaign 2016 – Council on Foreign Relations
Source: Platform – GPUS
THINK GREEN! That is unless you are one of those that lets others make up your mind for you……then….never mind!
Tomorrow you will go and cast your vote, if you have not already, and most will do it for either Trump or Clinton…..very few of us will brave the backlash and vote a third party…..what the Hell…I never was a herd animal…….
I do not buy the standard cop out that my vote will be a vote for the “other” guy and will assure this candidate or that the win.
A math lesson for critics of third-party voters
This is a post by a Libertarian leaning site but the points may work for any third party vote…..
My correspondent fired back: “Opportunity cost is Trump gets elected.”
I stand by my recklessness.
Here’s where the curious nature of the American Electoral College comes in handy. Even where my vote—or the votes of my 100 closest, most easily influenced “inner circle”—might swing an election, there is simply no real chance that pushing either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton over the top in South Carolina, where I live, will determine the outcome of the presidential race. If Hillary wobbles to victory in my current state of residence, she would have already demolished The Donald in the Electoral College. Similarly, in Maryland (where our family lived until 2014), a squeaker for Mr. Trump would indicate that Ms. Clinton had been vanquished in a yuuuuuge landslide elsewhere.
Source: Go Ahead, Throw Your Vote Away – Reason.com
Know your candidate and to Hell with the backlash.
On another note….there are those people that show their grit and do what their conscience tells them….I have a new HERO……
A Democratic presidential elector in Washington state says he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Former Bernie Sanders delegate Robert Satiacum told ABC News Friday night that the Democratic presidential candidate‘s stance on the environment clashed with his Native American heritage. “I will not vote for Hillary Clinton,” he told ABC News. “I will not write her name. I will not. I will not.”
The member of the Puyallup Tribe in the Evergreen State says he believes Clinton lied about using a private email server, calling it a “heinous act of stupidity.”
“She has done nothing remarkable as Secretary of State or as the senator of New York,” he continued. “She’s bought and paid for … I just can’t get behind her. There’s no character there.”
He added, “Maybe I’ll vote Mickey Mouse. In all seriousness, maybe I should vote for Bozo the Clown.”
Satiacum’s defection would matter only if Clinton landed at exactly 270 electoral votes on election night — and Satiacum still went rogue in the face of immense pressure and weeks of unprecedented litigation.
(wtvq.com)
We need more people that are willing to vote their conscience and not for some celeb with a big mouth or some war mongering witch……