leveymg
leveymg's JournalMust be why the Right is so obsessed with giving Embryoids, like cos., full legal status as people
Their only protection is to be part of a larger machine. While that's essentially a paranoid schizophrenic vision, the essence of fascism (and all authoritarian political thought, e.g. Hobbes "The Leviathan"), or plain Science Fiction, there is some metaphorical truth in these unhealthy, deeply disturbing images of how American society operates. Ergo, The Matrix "Hive Mind":
Machines that control and harvest thoughts (drawing by paranoid schizophrenic):
Anybody notice how many people replied to this thread? Kinda weird in itself, isn't it?
Response to Original Post: "Go outside and look northeast!"
As Howard Zinn taught, "class" is the last unspeakable word in American political discourse.
Somehow, we are so exceptional that the reality and analysis of class uniquely doesn't arise or apply here. That is because, as I found out over the course of three years in various course and seminars with Prof. Zinn, in American politics, the media, and in academia -- places where elsewhere in the world this subject would constantly be haggled out in public -- we are either under a regime of totalitarian self-censorship or successfully segregated safely away from wider public notice and comment. "Serious people" just don't speak about class in America, not outside carefully controlled forums, anyway, so it doesn't exist.
What gets said on these subjects in paneled committee rooms and graduate seminars never, ever gets covered in the corporate media. That is because news and information in America are products, privately owned and tightly controlled by corporations who have a virtual monopoly on the means of mass dissemination of ideas. That reality has only changed at the margins from what it was in the '80s with the coming of the Internet.
The United States in this sense is the least free of all the western societies, and for more than 75 years Americans have paid an increasingly steep price for that in the poverty of our politics and the inequalities of American society
Going buffalo hunting? In Buffalo? From a train?
http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/bison2jpg 
Syria Boxed into a Use-'Em-or-Lose-'Em WMD Dilemma Holding a Deadman Trigger
In the last few days we’ve started to see hints that Syrian End-Game is expected to involve a launch of some of Syria’s giant, and very real, stockpile of chemical and biological weapons (CBW). The strategy of regime change in Damascus pursued by the US and its regional allies may assure that outcome.
As the prospect of annihilation nears, the Generals in Damascus -- almost all of whom are of the ruling Alawite religious minority -- may see little chance to preserve themselves from the Sunni onslaught other than to threaten exercise of their last-ditch option of launching a missile CBW attack on surrounding countries that have been running the armed opposition.
Yesterday, the NYT reported that the United States has detected what is described as movement of some of Syria’s CBW stocks, and has warned that attempted use would cross a “red line” triggering direct US military intervention. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/world/middleeast/syria-moves-its-chemical-weapons-and-gets-another-warning.html?hp&_r=0 It is not yet clear whether this movement is merely precautionary measures by the Syrian armed forces to avoid these weapons falling into the hands of opposition forces.
Meanwhile, Israel has indicated to Jordan that it may carry out a preemptive attack on Syria’s missile launchers and CBW stockpiles in the event it determines that Syria is readying a launch. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/israel-asked-jordan-for-approval-to-bomb-syrian-wmd-sites/265818/
Two weeks ago, Turkey formally requested NATO Patriot anti-missile batteries on the border with Syria. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20427985
All this indicates that the regime change operations in Syria have reached an incredibly dangerous stage, and Pentagon, CIA and State Dept. officials never adequately planned for the worst-case violent end-phase in Syria, always reassuring the policymakers that they could pull off a nice, easy coup d'grace, a la Libya.
The CIA SAD and JSOC, along with the Israelis, are now publicly preparing a preemptive strike including special forces on the ground to take the launchers. For a close-up, on-the-ground view of the aftermath of a special forces attack on a Scud launcher in Libya last year that left the missiles and trucks largely intact, but nothing left of the crew other than neatly-lined up piles of entrails, see
Such preemptive air or ground attacks, however, would set off scenario, 1) and then 2):
1) The Syrian leadership finds itself boxed into a “Use-'Em-or-Lose-'Em” Dilemma with regards to its missile forces and CBW stockpiles, and,
2) As Israel, the US and possibly other countries begin decapitating air strikes and commando attacks on mobile missile transporters, the regime initiates a Deadman Trigger Scenario, that assures launch of at least some of its surviving warheads.
What makes the above scenarios frighteningly plausible is as follows.
The core problem with Syrian regime change is that even if Assad is removed, the rest of the Damascus government and high command are almost all members of the same Alawite sect and Ba'ath Party members, and the Sunni militias we and the Gulf Arabs back are hell-bent on killing them. So, even with Assad gone, his successors would also have no option other than to fight to the last or be exterminated, along with their families, by the Syrian Sunnis and foreign al-Qaeda fighters. Whoever planned and oversaw this operation -- Petraeus is one, there are many notable others -- ignored Kissinger’s prime directive of strategic engagement: always leave your opponent a mutually acceptable way out.
The fact that we have entered this stage in the game shows that initial expectations for the regime change program in Syria were incredibly unrealistic. For those who have approved this policy, Syria is fast becoming an epoch, historical disaster.
Susan Rice Vocally Supported the Iraq War, and Every Mid-East War Since
After weeks of dog whistles and GOP bullshit, the truth about Susan Rice is finally emerging. It may not be what those Democrats who have circled their wagons around her may expect or want in the next US Secretary of State:
Susan Rice was a cheerleader for Bush’s invasion of Iraq (11/02, 12/02, 02/03)
Assistant secretary of state in the Clinton administration, Rice has been a prominent foreign policy spokesperson for the Obama campaign. Here are some of her claims shortly before the invasion of Iraq:
“I think he [then Secretary of State Colin Powell] has proved that Iraq has these weapons and is hiding them, and I don’t think many informed people doubted that.” (NPR, Feb. 6, 2003)
“We need to be ready for the possibility that the attack against the U.S. could come in some form against the homeland, not necessarily on the battlefield against our forces. And I think there, too, is an area where the American people need to be better prepared by our leadership. … It’s clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It’s clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully, and that’s the path we’re on. I think the question becomes whether we can keep the diplomatic balls in the air and not drop any, even as we move forward, as we must, on the military side.” (NPR, Dec. 20, 2002)
“I think the United States government has been clear since the first Bush administration about the threat that Iraq and Saddam Hussein poses. The United States policy has been regime change for many, many years, going well back into the Clinton administration. So it’s a question of timing and tactics. … We do not necessarily need a further Council resolution before we can enforce this and previous resolutions. (NPR, Nov. 11, 2002)
Susan Rice advocated the US stay in Iraq “for many years to come” (04/03)
Susan Rice: “To maximize our likelihood of success, the US is going to have to remain committed to and focused on reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq for many years to come. This administration and future ones will need to demonstrate a longer attention span than we have in Afghanistan, and we will have to embrace rather than evade the essential tasks of peacekeeping and nation building. We would be wise to involve as early as is feasible the UN and key allies in the complex tasks of democracy building and reconstruction, and we would be wise to help foster organic internal processes for selecting a new national leadership in Iraq, as the international community did in supporting the loya jirga process in Afghanistan. We can not be seen to select or anoint new Iraqi leaders. We need also to be to be exceedingly careful with the Americans coming in under General Garner to assume governance roles in Iraq.”
Susan Rice swayed the President to pursue a UN authorization for airstrikes in Libya (03/11)
Time Magazine observed in March 24, 2011 issue about Rice’s role in swaying the President: http://www.time.com/...
Obama gave Rice the go-ahead . . .
Susan Rice then sought a similar UN authorization for military intervention in Syria (10/11)
Rice was one of the most vociferous champions of international armed intervention against Syria. On October 5, 2011, after Russia and China led a group of countries which vetoed a Security Council resolution similar to that which authorized the use of outside force in Libya. Brazil, India, South Africa and Lebanon abstained. After the vote, Dr. Rice used unusually nondiplomatic language to say that those countries had carried out “a cheap ruse” and, addressing a press confererence after the vote, she said that the Syrians “have been slapped in the face by several members of this Security Council today.”
I think Libya has been beat to death, overused, and misused by countries as an excuse by countries to not untake their responsibilities with regard to Syria.”
Susan Rice led the push for the US to join Israel in Confrontation with Iran (09/12)
Dr. Rice has also been the point of the spear in the escalating US confrontation with Iran. Her rhetoric toward that country has been often hostile, played out on the UN stage underlined by gathering regime change operations and economic destabilization under the U.S.-led sanctions regime.
During the past three years, US relations with Iran have steadily deteriorated as the international sanctions regime overseen by Ambassador Rice has intensified. Iran sees the U.S. as playing a see-saw game of threats and economic warfare with Israel to ratchet up pressure and tensions. The Jerusalem Post reported on September 16, 2012: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=285292
Susan Rice has pushed every Middle East war during this past decade.
If she becomes Secretary of State, chances are she will be a leading voice urging the United States into the next one.
Measure twice. Cut once.
Smedley Butler and Omar Bradley were my kind of Generals
Cared more about their troops than about the shine on their own medals. Bradley saw it clearly:
- Omar N. Bradley
In Butler's case, he just came out and said it:
Karl Rove can now be contacted at hotturd1@Innermostringofhell.org
Maybe he has a job available. Casual attire. Bring your shorts.
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (for spies) Dig it>
This one goes out to David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell. Perfect mood music and lyrics for those Special Ops you shared.
In the deserts of Sudan and the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatan, ev'ry woman, ev'ry man
Hit me your rhythm stick, hit me, hit me
Je t'adore, ich liebe dich, hit me, hit me, hit me
Hit me with your rhythm stick
Hit me slowly, hit me quick
Hit me, hit me, hit me
In the wilds of Borneo and the vineyards of Bordeaux
Eskimo, Arapaho, move their body to and fro
Hit me with your rhythm stick, hit me, hit me
Das ist gut, c'est fantastique, hit me, hit me, hit me
Hit me with your rhythm stick
It's nice to be a lunatic
Hit me, hit me, hit me
Hit me, hit me, hit
In the dock of Tiger Bay, on the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fé, o'er the hills and far away
Hit me with your rhythm stick, hit me, hit me
C'est si bon, mm? Ist es nicht? Hit me, hit me, hit me
Hit me with your rhythm stick
Two fat persons, click, click, click
Hit me, hit me, hit me
Hit me, hit me, hit me - hit me, hit me ....
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Member since: Wed May 5, 2004, 09:44 AMNumber of posts: 36,418
