calimary
calimary's JournalAw, thanks!
But seriously, you gotta watch these people. You generically but really, ALL OF US have to keep an eye on them. Because those they hang with and those who surround them are just as important and influential, and will have "their master's ear" assuming he/she goes all the way to the White House or some other position of public authority. It's just as important to know who THEY are. THOSE are the leading indicators of what the person they're helping or backing or advising or serving in some way is going to be up to if allowed to gain power. And many of the same damn PNAC vermin are slithering around again now! Looking for some new star to whom to hitch their wagon so, in bill kristol's case and cheney's case and others, they can be part of the "in" crowd again and have THEIR pal in the White House for a change and maybe they can start another big ol' fun and exciting war!
Welcome to DU, Roy Serohz!
Glad you're here! Man - your observation really cuts straight through a LOT. Amazing, and rather brave. I would guess that there are many who feel that one should not dare to criticize those who served. Seems to me, anyway, as someone who came of age with the Vietnam War mess swirling all over everywhere, there might be many emotions left over from that era, including guilt. There remains an awareness of how Vietnam-era veterans were treated by some extremist opponents who let their disgust for the war spill over onto those who had to go over there and fight the damn thing. So I think there might be a sense throughout America, a heightened sensitivity really, about treating those who've seen combat with so much more of the respect they've earned. Maybe some of us feel as though we're trying to atone for past sins? Who knows...
But at the same time, not everybody in the military is a good guy. Look at oliver north. Look at rummy! Shit! In a class by himself among his PNAC and neocon fellows, because surprisingly enough, he actually served. donald rumsfeld actually wore his country's uniform. Um - during peacetime. He served between wars, after Korea but before Vietnam. Never saw combat. Never put his ass in harm's way. Never had to. So maybe that informs so many of his bad decisions and priorities later in life - all those "known knowns" and "unknown unknowns" and so forth, dontchaknow. Both of them and so many others still have a lot to answer for, and their service in the armed forces doesn't absolve them of it.
Baloney! Here's what everyone needs to remember - ALWAYS - about these people:
It's not just them. It's who they have around them, who's advising them, who'll coach them in debates, who'll research or even write their position papers, speeches, and legislation, it's who funds them - ALL OF WHOM can easily find their way onto the candidate's coattails to ride into office with him or her. I will never forget avowed and unapologetic PNAC-er randy scheunemann - who advised mccain on foreign policy after being one of the people leading the cheerleaders from behind the scenes to get us into war in Iraq during bush/cheney. He's been lurking in that sewer the whole time. And he wound up as sarah peabrain's debate coach on foreign policy issues. One SMALL bit of sweet justice - he stumbled away from that experience shaking his head and needing to grab something to keep his balance, she was THAT bad and THAT insufferable and THAT stupid. But make no mistake: THERE HE WAS, ANYWAY.
Fiends like him ALWAYS look for the way back in. They literally infest the CON side. They proliferate like nukes or cockroaches, whichever group overruns us first. They abound on that side of the aisle - always going for the brawn over any brains. ALWAYS spoiling for a fight. ALWAYS wanting to flex their muscles in foreign policy and assert America's "Alpha Male'ness" what a tough-guy nation we are - and how we need to stay on top by force or else... or else... or else...
Seems to me, though, that kind of approach ALWAYS invites people to say - "oh YEAH?" ALWAYS seems to bring on somebody wanting to knock #1 off the top spot. It's the same people who encourage scoffing at science and evolution, while they practice it and advocate it in foreign policy to their last breath. The problem with being the presumed First nation among the First World is - you're always gonna have people coming after you, trying to knock you out of first place. And they can do it through economics and trade and monetary policy, and/or they can do it with hackers and internet spies and technological espionage, and/or they can do it with guns 'n' ammo. There are other nations competing with us who are even now, even at this very moment, aiming at us with their educated populations that are free to learn about and explore the sciences without religious imposition. There are better-educated young people coming out of there, and brain-drains leeching some of our best away. The barbarians are always at the gates, so to speak, wanting into that nice secure gated community - which in this case, is the former Fortress America.
Seems to me we need some new thinking on this. A new kind of national dialogue. DO WE REALLY want to be the first among equals? DO WE REALLY? Can we take a look at what that costs? I'm not just talking financial costs. I'm talking social costs, religious costs, philosophical costs. Ego costs. Would the extremist religiosos in this country ever be willing to move the Bible over to the side to make room for legitimate objective science texts? Would they be willing to relinquish the foothold they've gained to force the teaching of Genesis into classes about evolution? Probably not. Would the professional CONS and the CON-leaning non-pros be willing to cough up more in taxes because we're now increasingly the proud owners of Third-World-quality roads? Would those mccains and kristols be willing to loosen their embrace on "war first, ask questions later"? Are we willing to continue to eat all of this increasingly foolish thinking and 19th-Century imperialistic aggressive tendencies or should we begin to consider functioning in this world WITHOUT an empire to maintain? Is it time to give that up? Since so much of America refuses to pay taxes to support public schools, and finds it no real problem that students are choking in debt if they get into college - which soon enough will be priced WAY out of the reach of most of them? Is it okay with the penny-wise/pound-foolish crowd to be proud owners of an increasingly poorly-educated population? How do we maintain any sort of world leadership under those conditions? Has anybody on that side even paused for a moment to think about this?
A lot of this - MOST of this - comes from the GOP side. The CON side. And they're not giving it up. The PNACers still think that with enough guns 'n' ammo and muscle and big-ass toys they can control and sublimate the world and humble, convert, or do away with all our adversaries! And they find a lot more fertile ground to spread their greed seed among the GOP, far more there than among Democrats. Of course, they all stay home in their luxurious gated compounds and those well-funded big-ticket think tanks and corner offices til they have to go down to the studio and do their talking head or guest loud-mouth thing. OTHERS get to go do the dirty work. But they look for people who can get them back into power so they can implement all their shitty "ideas" about American conquest and unquestioned domination of the world. (Yet another reason never to vote republi-CON! Our side doesn't have anywhere near the nonstop idiot chorus of bad ideas that those across the aisle do! NEVER FORGET: all that idiot chorus wants to do is sing in the Oval Office - or in some high-profile or high-potential governor's/senator's/congressperson's/legislator's/mayor's office - again.)
There'd be so many jobs created this way! It'd revive the middle class, for sure.
Just imagine. If we spent that money making people's lives better? If we invested in something that actually worked and paid dividends - new roads, rail, air, yes - ALL OF IT !!!
However, I must admit, this one...
We might just find that we weren't the biggest selfish assholes on the planet after all!
...seems the most improbable of all. Unfortunately.
GOOD one!
EXCELLENT! I stand corrected. He actually DOES have a few atoms stumbling around in that gaping hole behind his eyeballs and ears and under all that skin covering the top of his head. It's not a total vacuum. Those eleven atoms DO count.
We have to take their whiny "we can't afford it" when the subject is feeding the poor or
housing the homeless or fixing our roads and shove it back up their asses. If we can't even afford to fix our own roads anymore, there's no way in hell we can afford to go to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, anywhere else in the Persian Gulf, or anywhere else IN THE WORLD. We can't afford THAT, either!
Time for some of that austerity the GOP loves so much to kick in! Starting with the Pentagon. I don't care WHAT the geopolitical rationale is. Don't care anymore! I want the roads and bridges fixed - which would mean at least some of those poor and hungry and needy might actually get JOBS - working on such projects.
Tie EVERY military appropriation to some highway project. Tie EVERY military wish-list BS to a food stamp program, or Head Start, or Meals on Wheels, or something.
I'd push it farther - on the pro-choice front, that is.
If you really, seriously, ardently, and truly believe you're "pro-life," then here's what you can no longer support:
The death penalty. PERIOD. Pro-life means Pro-LIFE. EVERYBODY's life. Even the felons and the murderers. Yes, even the bad guys. If you're gonna be that staunch about it, if it's LIFE ABOVE ALL ELSE, then this one's gotta go. It's simply OFF your list. Sorry.
The Second Amendment - free, open, unregulated, wanton access to guns. They DO kill people, no matter how you try to rationalize it or qualify it or split hairs about it. And yes, people kill people. WITH GUNS. PERIOD. Guns lead directly to death. Even when it's a so-called "bad guy" and sometimes that distinction is only in the eye of the (be)holder. If you're REALLY AND TRULY pro-LIFE, then NO MORE GUNS for you! Sorry. Them's the breaks. It's all or nothin'. Either you're all the way pro-LIFE or you're not. No wiggle room.
The Pentagon. Wars kill people, repeat - WARS KILL PEOPLE. Especially innocents. You know, the innocents like you claim that masses of differentiating cells in the first trimester are, too. You can't be for war or American imperialism or "police actions" where people get killed. If you're TRULY pro-life, then YOU cannot go there, either. You have to turn your little pro-life self into an ardent peacenik. Sorry!
republi-CON governors - who refuse the Affordable Care Act or ANY efforts from Washington to send money to the states so more of their citizens can qualify for Medicare and other aid. People DIE when they can't afford health care, or the insurance coverage of same. They get sick, can't afford to get treated until it's probably too late, and they DIE. You're pro-LIFE, you say? Well, then you better get behind that dreaded "Obamacare" you hate so much. Sorry. Hate to break it to you. Like it or not, that Obamacare you hate so much is saving lives.
The Government. Regulators and regulations. Sorry - heck, DOUBLE-Sorry! Those in the government you hate - who test your food and your meds, impose strict standards for safety, cleanliness, truth-in-advertising, testing of household chemicals, milk, foodstuffs, the safety of cars on the road, civil engineering that ensures bridges don't collapse and levees don't break and your roof is solid and won't fall in every time it sprinkles, the safety of tires, water quality, electrical appliances and anything else with a UL-Approved rating, insulation, proper airline maintenance, heating elements, chemicals leaking from the power plants and coal-refineries near you, imports from China (you okay with your baby wearing cheap-ass flammable PJs every night?), a livable wage, all those things, those rules, those laws, those regulations, those restrictions, those governmental "interferences" into your life - ALL THOSE THINGS SAVE LIVES. ALL of them. If you're REALLY pro-LIFE, then you have to be in favor of ALL those things - and rather STAUNCHLY in favor of ALL those things, too. Because without them, people WILL die before their time. Without them, people will be killed.
Sorry, but that's how it is. Either you're pro-LIFE - or you're not. And being pro-"life" goes a helluva lot farther than just making sure some woman who works for you can't afford to get contraceptives because you think your religion is more important than her health and well-being are.
I'm surprised louie gohmert's head is still convex.
Nature abhors a vacuum, after all. With the atmospheric pressure at sea level being greater than a vacuum (about 15 pounds per square inch), I'm surprised his head doesn't crush inward til it's about a half-inch wide.
Or there's my idea of the worst president ever - and I'd have to give that one to ronald reagan.
He's certainly the most destructive president in American History - since his trickle-down/deregulation policies set the stage for the utter ruin we're all experiencing now. That's the only candidate for this "high office" whom I could see as pushing george w dry-drunk off the top of the list.
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