Anything for a Buck
As Iraq continues to disintegrate into city states run by warlords America’s “Defense” (war is now referred to as defense) industry is padding the pockets of our leading Democrat presidential frontrunners but not to worry the war industry is covering all their bases by giving gobs of cash to all the front runners in our so-called elections (dog and pony show).
According to the Progressive this is the breakdown of what our own leading warlord hopefuls have received this quarter alone from the war industry.
Chris Dodd -- $168,900
Hillary Clinton -- $128,988
Obama -- $57,990
Giuliani -- $58,400
Romney -- $82,975
Interestingly though Hillary Clinton is the worst choice among the Democrats when it comes to a continued program of war in Iraq and beyond she is clearly ahead in recent polls for the race to the Whitehouse. I believe this is so for more than one reason. First Americans are very poor at paying attention to politics other than what they get from watching the local news. Second the news media itself will support any candidate that is pro-war, pro-establishment and represents the so-called mainstream while candidates that do not fall into this category are relegated for the most part to obscurity and derision, they are simply not to be taken seriously. Keep in mind that the news media is in business to make profits and war is very good for news media profits. Adding to the problem of a less than forthright news media are those unwitting dupes of power and the establishment the centrist bloggers who continue to support the Democratic Party no matter what. Some may actually be getting paid for these services rendered but most do it out of an abysmal ignorance and an unreasoning tribal loyalty based on erroneous assumptions. I recently read at one blog that the answer to our problems is to vote in progressive politicians at all levels of government. The only problem with this brilliant thinking is that with a minute handful of exceptions there really are no progressive politicians. If I suggested that the answer is to howl at the moon it would be as useful. And while these centrist blogs sometimes come up with useful facts they unfailingly fail to make that final connection that the Democrats are screwing us and have been for decades.
In an interview with Nir Rosen, Rosen states that it does not matter at this point if we end the occupation of Iraq or not. Keep in mind that this statement by Rosen is only in the framework of what it means for Iraq. In that framework Rosen is probably correct yet for the average American nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put the cost of the Iraq occupation is killing our democracy, which in my opinion has long been dying anyway, and our economy. Since the Democratic Party has been just as guilty as the Republicans of promoting an illegal war, which has become an illegal occupation, they are not about to impeach Bush or Cheney. Both Republican and Democrats alike are up to their necks in one of the greatest crimes of recent history. If the Democrats were to pursue impeachment they would have to impeach themselves as well for they are guilty of the same crimes they would be impeaching Bush and Cheney for. And besides all that the Democrats are war mongers themselves due to their undying belief in American exceptionalism and our right to dominate the planet which they see as being for everyone’s benefit not to mention the benefits to their own bank accounts.
We need to keep in mind that for both of our political parties power is paramount for power is an end to itself and provides all the justification needed to do whatever it takes to stay in power up to an including ignoring the destruction of the nation the political parties are leading. I don’t know who coined the phrase follow the money but it should have been chiseled into the stone tablets Moses brought down from the mountain, perhaps the eleventh commandment.
Prior to World War II there was no war industry, at least not as we know it today, which we hilariously and less than honestly refer to as the defense industry. During World War II factories that were fabricating peacetime goods were converted to manufacturing weapons but as is so often the case with capitalism (anything for a buck) giant corporations found just how lucrative the death industry could be and they liked it.
From the American Prospect:
Politicians often use the patriot ploy as in the oft used term support the troops which has become a double edged sword for the Democrats on one side using it to hide their true agenda of endless war while on the other hand live in fear of being accused of not supporting the troops. Whatever one may think of the troops the troops are simply not the issue they are but pawns used as cannon fodder for whatever is convenient at the time by our illustrious national leaders. When you consider that patriotism is the furthest thing from national leader as well as weapon maker minds one should do a double take every time someone makes an appeal to your “patriotism.” Patriotism is nothing but propaganda used to pull a blanket over the eyes to hide the true motives of men. Consider this passage from the same American Prospect essay.
One could take this one step further if you consider a reality where our government is no government at all but is merely a front for the giant corporations who rule our lives and fates confounding our sensibilities with a puppet government whose goal is to make their corporate masters richer than they already are and at the same time keeping themselves in power.
Recalling those “donations” from the war industry we can see how though they favor certain mainstream candidates they do a good job of covering all their bases by giving large sums of money to all the candidates. To me this makes the suggestion that there are two distinct political parties laughable and to believe that your vote matters downright hilarious. It is useless to argue over which candidate or which party is best because they are all of a mind which is the pursuit of power that binds them together in their criminal and murderous pastimes. There are signs all around us that illustrate this sameness shared by our politicos. One of the most glaring of these signs is the enduring (permanent) bases that have been built in Iraq that the news media rarely mentions. The Democrats have indulged President Bush by handing him the monies to build these tributes to our particular brand of colonialism despite their pathetic and lying claims of being an opposition party. It matters not who is elected in regards to Iraq because we shall be residing there in our billion dollar bunkers for many, many years to come.
Then of course there is the great American public whose only problem with the occupation of Iraq is that it has been a failure. For the most part most Americans never question our self destructive path to world domination because Americans feel we have the best form of government, our democracy, and that our hamburger way of life is one that everyone should follow. Being the self-absorbed nation that we are occasionally reality impinges its unwelcome manifestations on our thought processes thus we know when our lives are affected especially when it hits us in the pocket book but when times are flush and high paying jobs are plentiful watch out for that arrogance and the delusions of grandeur that so easily materialize in our minds. However when money gets tight social programs don’t seem like such a commie thought. In the end Americans don’t much care about all the dead and displaced Iraqi people rather it is our own sense of self preservation that wins the battle of our hearts and minds.
This is truly an anything for a buck nation.
According to the Progressive this is the breakdown of what our own leading warlord hopefuls have received this quarter alone from the war industry.
Chris Dodd -- $168,900
Hillary Clinton -- $128,988
Obama -- $57,990
Giuliani -- $58,400
Romney -- $82,975
Interestingly though Hillary Clinton is the worst choice among the Democrats when it comes to a continued program of war in Iraq and beyond she is clearly ahead in recent polls for the race to the Whitehouse. I believe this is so for more than one reason. First Americans are very poor at paying attention to politics other than what they get from watching the local news. Second the news media itself will support any candidate that is pro-war, pro-establishment and represents the so-called mainstream while candidates that do not fall into this category are relegated for the most part to obscurity and derision, they are simply not to be taken seriously. Keep in mind that the news media is in business to make profits and war is very good for news media profits. Adding to the problem of a less than forthright news media are those unwitting dupes of power and the establishment the centrist bloggers who continue to support the Democratic Party no matter what. Some may actually be getting paid for these services rendered but most do it out of an abysmal ignorance and an unreasoning tribal loyalty based on erroneous assumptions. I recently read at one blog that the answer to our problems is to vote in progressive politicians at all levels of government. The only problem with this brilliant thinking is that with a minute handful of exceptions there really are no progressive politicians. If I suggested that the answer is to howl at the moon it would be as useful. And while these centrist blogs sometimes come up with useful facts they unfailingly fail to make that final connection that the Democrats are screwing us and have been for decades.
In an interview with Nir Rosen, Rosen states that it does not matter at this point if we end the occupation of Iraq or not. Keep in mind that this statement by Rosen is only in the framework of what it means for Iraq. In that framework Rosen is probably correct yet for the average American nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put the cost of the Iraq occupation is killing our democracy, which in my opinion has long been dying anyway, and our economy. Since the Democratic Party has been just as guilty as the Republicans of promoting an illegal war, which has become an illegal occupation, they are not about to impeach Bush or Cheney. Both Republican and Democrats alike are up to their necks in one of the greatest crimes of recent history. If the Democrats were to pursue impeachment they would have to impeach themselves as well for they are guilty of the same crimes they would be impeaching Bush and Cheney for. And besides all that the Democrats are war mongers themselves due to their undying belief in American exceptionalism and our right to dominate the planet which they see as being for everyone’s benefit not to mention the benefits to their own bank accounts.
We need to keep in mind that for both of our political parties power is paramount for power is an end to itself and provides all the justification needed to do whatever it takes to stay in power up to an including ignoring the destruction of the nation the political parties are leading. I don’t know who coined the phrase follow the money but it should have been chiseled into the stone tablets Moses brought down from the mountain, perhaps the eleventh commandment.
Prior to World War II there was no war industry, at least not as we know it today, which we hilariously and less than honestly refer to as the defense industry. During World War II factories that were fabricating peacetime goods were converted to manufacturing weapons but as is so often the case with capitalism (anything for a buck) giant corporations found just how lucrative the death industry could be and they liked it.
From the American Prospect:
In fact, the United States is still far and away the top arms exporter on the planet, delivering $11.6 billion in arms last year[2005] -- 45.6 percent of the world's total, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
Politicians often use the patriot ploy as in the oft used term support the troops which has become a double edged sword for the Democrats on one side using it to hide their true agenda of endless war while on the other hand live in fear of being accused of not supporting the troops. Whatever one may think of the troops the troops are simply not the issue they are but pawns used as cannon fodder for whatever is convenient at the time by our illustrious national leaders. When you consider that patriotism is the furthest thing from national leader as well as weapon maker minds one should do a double take every time someone makes an appeal to your “patriotism.” Patriotism is nothing but propaganda used to pull a blanket over the eyes to hide the true motives of men. Consider this passage from the same American Prospect essay.
No one can accuse the defense industry of lacking audacity. Despite receiving vast sums of money from the Pentagon each year, and having much of Congress in their back pocket, arms manufacturers have been holding conference after conference of late complaining that big government is keeping them down. At a Heritage Foundation event in mid-October, at which industry officials gathered to discuss the burdens of arms-export regulations, Robert Bauerlein, a vice president at Boeing, griped: "Government fundamentally doesn't trust industry to do the right thing when it comes to export controls." This from a company that earlier this year was fined $15 million for illegally selling military technology to China.
One could take this one step further if you consider a reality where our government is no government at all but is merely a front for the giant corporations who rule our lives and fates confounding our sensibilities with a puppet government whose goal is to make their corporate masters richer than they already are and at the same time keeping themselves in power.
Recalling those “donations” from the war industry we can see how though they favor certain mainstream candidates they do a good job of covering all their bases by giving large sums of money to all the candidates. To me this makes the suggestion that there are two distinct political parties laughable and to believe that your vote matters downright hilarious. It is useless to argue over which candidate or which party is best because they are all of a mind which is the pursuit of power that binds them together in their criminal and murderous pastimes. There are signs all around us that illustrate this sameness shared by our politicos. One of the most glaring of these signs is the enduring (permanent) bases that have been built in Iraq that the news media rarely mentions. The Democrats have indulged President Bush by handing him the monies to build these tributes to our particular brand of colonialism despite their pathetic and lying claims of being an opposition party. It matters not who is elected in regards to Iraq because we shall be residing there in our billion dollar bunkers for many, many years to come.
Then of course there is the great American public whose only problem with the occupation of Iraq is that it has been a failure. For the most part most Americans never question our self destructive path to world domination because Americans feel we have the best form of government, our democracy, and that our hamburger way of life is one that everyone should follow. Being the self-absorbed nation that we are occasionally reality impinges its unwelcome manifestations on our thought processes thus we know when our lives are affected especially when it hits us in the pocket book but when times are flush and high paying jobs are plentiful watch out for that arrogance and the delusions of grandeur that so easily materialize in our minds. However when money gets tight social programs don’t seem like such a commie thought. In the end Americans don’t much care about all the dead and displaced Iraqi people rather it is our own sense of self preservation that wins the battle of our hearts and minds.
This is truly an anything for a buck nation.
Labels: democratic party, politics, polling, Republican Party
posted by Unknown at 7:38 AM
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