COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, May 26, 2014

Another BS national holiday, “Memorial Day”, passes with the usual flag waving, parade marching, saluting and “remembering” our fallen heroes.

Not too many weeks ago, we saw what the flag waivers really thought:




On the other hand, we have the absurdity where the  two needless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a  Harvard University study,  have a projected final bill  to hit $4 trillion to $6 trillion in the coming decades.

Yet the latest headlines are that Obama is too timid and not getting us involved in new foreign ventures. Who do you believe in Washington? 

This probably explains some of it:




43 comments:

  1. Burr Duels With Veterans’ Groups

    Burr said in an “open letter to America’s veterans”:

    It became clear at the hearing that most of the other VSOs attending appear to be more interested in defending the status quo within VA, protecting their relationships within the agency, and securing their access to the Secretary and his inner circle… I believe the national and local commanders of every VSO have the interests of their members at heart, and take seriously their commitment to their members and their organization. Unfortunately, I no longer believe that to be the case within the Washington executive staff of the VSOs that testified. Last week’s hearing made it clear to me that the staff has ignored the constant VA problems expressed by their members and is more interested in their own livelihoods and Washington connections than they are to the needs of their own members.
    ...
    Burr’s letter triggered some tough responses from those he targeted.

    “This is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed in more than forty years of involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate,” said the VFW’s William Thien, commander-in-chief, and John Hamilton, adjutant general, in a statement.

    “Although Senator Burr attended much of that hearing, apparently all he wanted to hear were calls for the VA Secretary to resign,” Joseph Johnston of the Disabled American Veterans said. “Senator Burr may be enamored with the idea that all of VA’s problems and challenges can be overcome by replacing one Secretary, but the plain facts and simple logic indicate otherwise.”

    But he didn’t attend the entire hearing, as Paralyzed Veterans President Bill Lawson and Executive Director Homer Townsend, Jr., noted in a letter:
    “Perhaps you should have shared with all veterans in your `open’ letter that you cared so much about their health care that you were not actually present during the testimony that the VSO representatives provided and you did not ask a single question to gauge our recommendations about how to fix the problems the VA health care system is facing.”

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robert Welch favored a foreign policy of “Fortress America" rather than "entangling alliances" through NATO and the UN. For this reason, Welch combined a strong anti-Communism with opposition to the bipartisan Cold War consensus of armed internationalism. undoubtedly, he would have opposed our adventures in Iraq, Kosovo, Libya, Syria and anything in the former Soviet territories in Ukraine.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The White House blew the cover of the top CIA agent in Afghanistan on Sunday, when the person’s name was included on a list given to reporters during a visit to the country by President Barack Obama.

    The name was then emailed by the White House press office to a distribution list of more than 6,000 recipients, mostly members of the US media.

    The agent in question, listed as chief of station, would be a top manager of CIA activity in Afghanistan, including intelligence collection and a drone-warfare programme under which unmanned aerial vehicles mount cross-border attacks into Pakistan.

    The name appeared on a list of attendees requested by White House officials for the president’s visit to Bagram air base to mark Memorial Day, the national day of tribute to fallen service members. The list of 15 people was drawn up by the military, written into a routine press report and sent to Washington. The Obama press office then sent the list, unredacted, to the larger group.

    The mistake did not come to light until the reporter who had filed from Afghanistan, the veteran Washington Post correspondent Scott Wilson, looked more closely at what he had sent and noticed the name and title.

    “I drew it to their attention before they had noticed what had happened,” Wilson said on Monday, hours after returning from the 33-hour trip overseas.

    “I asked the press official that was with us on the trip if they knew that the station chief had been identified in the list. That person said that they did not know that, but that because the list was provided by military, they assumed it was OK. By this time the list was out.

    “Soon after, I think that they talked to their bosses, and realised that it was not OK. And they tried to figure out what to do about this, if there was a way to kind of un-ring the bell.”

    The name was left off of a subsequent report filed from Bagram.

    ReplyDelete
  4. How do you think this will work out?

    Ukraine's president-elect, Petro Poroshenko, promised to end the armed insurgency in the east of the country in "hours", as Kiev's forces launched air strikes on separatists during an intense battle to regain control of Donetsk airport which left many injured.

    With almost all the votes counted on Monday evening, Poroshenko, a pro-west businessman, was on course for a decisive victory with 54% of the vote, while his nearest challenger won just 13%, but when he takes up office he will be faced with the immediate task of bringing calm to Ukraine's eastern regions.

    The pro-Russia forces who have occupied government buildings in eastern Ukraine said they were ready to negotiate with Ukraine's new leadership, but only with Russian mediation and on equal terms. The separatists have declared themselves de facto independent states and claim Kiev has no jurisdiction over them.

    Less than a fifth of polling stations opened in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on Sunday following a massive campaign of intimidation by the separatists, who say they want the eastern regions of Ukraine to join Russia after questionable referendums earlier this month.

    But as the majority of Russian troops have now moved away from the border with Ukraine, the prospect of a Russian invasion or a Crimea-style annexation of the territory is unlikely.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You've lost your mind, Deuce.

    Whatever about Iraq, we had to go into Afghanistan.

    I hope we stay, after all this trouble.

    They attacked our financial center, and the Pentagon, and were going for our center of Legislation and/or the White House.

    We are perfectly justified in what we have done in Afghanistan.

    I put your change of view on your Arabic girlfriend, not really wanting to say you've gone insane.





    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She must be damn good with the pillow talk.

      Delete
    2. The objective was obtained in weeks, yet the Bush Administration would not dispatch 800 Rangers to Tora Bora close OBL's escape route into Pakistan, as it would be "to big" a footprint.

      But within a year the US had tens of thousands of troops in Afghanistan, on a nation building mission that has failed in a bi-partisan manner.

      Delete
    3. The only fellow that has lost his mind is Bob.

      You can't fix stupid

      Delete
  6. And it is disgusting to hammer on our Memorial Day.

    Disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The non-veteran, the fellow that thinks his taxes made up his 'sacrifice' is offended.
      Buzz off, bitch

      Delete
    2. As Rufus would say, blow me.

      Delete
  7. Memorial Day recognizes all the sacrifices our people have made over the years.

    The world is a better place because of those sacrifices.

    Blow me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have never sacrificed for anyone but yourself.
      You do not know the meaning of the word.

      Bend over, I'll drive you home, bitch.

      Delete
  8. And particularly in WWII.

    The world is a better place because of our Vets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would be everyone here, but YOU.

      Delete
    2. Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
      Why don't you fit in?
      Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?

      Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?

      Delete
    3. rat, you are not a Vet. You were just a gun for hire in Central America.

      It is not you I am saluting.

      I am saluting the true Vets.

      Delete
    4. .Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
      Why don't you fit in?
      Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?

      Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?

      Delete
    5. Why do you disrespect rufus?
      Why do you disrespect Deuce?

      Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
      Why don't you fit in?
      Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?

      Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?

      Delete
  9. If you wish, Anon, you are perfectly able to go out and piss on a flag pole today.

    Because of the Vets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why do you disrespect rufus?
      Why do you disrespect Deuce?

      Why are you always the outlier, Bob?
      Why don't you fit in?
      Why do you think the rest of us are crazy and only you are sane?

      Don't you recognize the incongruity of that position?

      Delete
    2. Why do you disrespect the Veterans, Bob?
      Why do you disrespect rufus?
      Why do you disrespect Deuce?

      Why are you so vile?

      Delete
    3. Why aren't you a Veteran, Bob?
      Why are you the outlier?

      Delete
    4. Not a Vet cause I never joined the Army.

      Went farming instead.

      But I salute those Vets who have helped maintain our way of life.

      Delete
    5. I salute the true Vets, and not a punk like you, rat, who went on a little killing spree in Central America and bragged about it.

      The true Vets should be saluted, you should be in prison.

      Delete
  10. The old Bircher crank was about half right. A big reason for these bullshit wars is "war."

    The part about "covering up the communist takeover of America . . . . . . . . .?"

    Well, what the hell can you say?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Many of my farmer friends are Vets. Not all, but a good number of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why are you not a Veteran, Bob?
      Why are you the outlier?

      Why do you disrespect Deuce and why did you disrespect rufus, on Memorial Day?

      Delete
  12. Now you go to bed, get some rest, and shut up for the rest of the day, rat.

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's a good thing to set aside one day of the year to the Vets. Doesn't mean you have to respect the government's decisions tho.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Pillow talk? Try thinking for a change:

    I stated at the time, that Bush should have dragged the Saudi Ambassador into the White House and let him know that they owed us $500 billion in reparations. Period.

    I also stated he should have matched and checked the iconic felling of two towers with two mushroom clouds rising on each Afghan training camp. Period.

    Instead we have this amazing account to the crass stupidity of Bush and his Neocon flag waivers:

    When a suicide bomber detonated an explosive beside the vehicle in which Army Master Sgt. Todd Nelson was riding through Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, shrapnel struck his right side, and fire engulfed him.

    Nearby troops pulled Nelson from the flaming wreckage of the Land Cruiser, and American medics and surgeons at the nearest base did what they could to stabilize him.

    Nelson had a fractured skull and crushed facial bones. His nose, right eye and ear were gone. Burns covered more than 18 percent of his body. He was unconscious for six weeks; only a heartbeat showed he was alive.

    Now 40, he’s sure the U.S. medical evacuation teams that flew him swiftly to Germany and on to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio saved his life several times en route.

    That Nelson didn’t die from his grievous wounds is testament to the military medical advances that have given U.S. troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan a remarkable 90 percent chance of survival.

    Telling his story to a roomful of science reporters last month, Nelson recalled waking up in the hospital and looking at himself in the mirror for the first time, thinking “‘I guess I can live with that.’ Because I felt fortunate to be alive.”

    Nelson is just one of more than 50,000 American troops who have suffered combat wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq.


    No, I don’t respect bullshit political holidays. No more than I respect incompetent politicians like Lyndon Johnson and Anal Abraham Lincoln that caused the carnage and owns this:

    ReplyDelete
  15. The avoidable US Civil War, 1861-1865

    Total deaths (Union forces only): 364,511
    Number serving (Union forces only): 2,213,363
    Battle deaths (Union forces only): 140,414
    Other deaths (Union forces only): 224,097
    Authoritative statistics for the Confederate forces aren't available, the CRS report says, but estimates of the number who served range from 600,000 to 1,500,000. The final report of the Provost Marshal General, 1863-1866, indicated 133,821 Confederate deaths (74,524 battle and 59,297 other) based upon incomplete returns, bringing the total to 498,332, making it America’s deadliest war.

    In addition, an estimated 26,000 to 31,000 Confederate personnel died in Union prisons.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sheer genius. Raise the flag higher boys.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Every country in the Americas that practiced slavery (and there were many) ended slavery without murder and destruction except one under one man that wished he was a woman.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Why not save your fire for President's Day then?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why?

    Here is why:


    Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.[1] The holiday, which is celebrated every year on the last Monday of May,[2] was formerly known as Decoration Day and originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in
    the war.

    ReplyDelete
  20. It should be renamed Lincoln’s Apology Day.

    ReplyDelete
  21. O well have it your way then.It's too nice a day to argue.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Day of the Northern Aggression; Celebration of Slavery Day; Old South Day

    All of these would be more appropriate.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Day of the Northern Aggression; Celebration of Slavery Day; Old South Day

    All of these would be more appropriate.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Old Ways Days

    Cherokee Slavery Day

    etc

    ReplyDelete
  25. What this country needs is a Reparations Day.

    Money in the mailbox for 100 years or so from the Limousine Liberals and the Cherokee Nation to anyone that can show they are 1/8th black.



    ReplyDelete