Why Anti-War? A Response to Thoughtless Ranting

Because I haven't posted recently, I will post this here:
A friend rebuking me on Facebook, and then my response.
Have you viisted the country recent. No you have not...... sooo how can you make comments as to our involvment or lack of involvement... you were not their and was present. I get so tired of people passing judgement when they do have any clue as to wants going on in foreign countries and what our government and allies are doing to retain peace with out bloodshed....\

You are free in this country to do what ever you want .....not so in soooo many other countrires...your freedoms are restricted.....is that what we want here in the USA Sheldon????......My father fought to keep the USA and YOUR FAMILY as well as MY FAMILY Free from terrorism abroad. Did you serve in the arm-forces????......no you did not. As a Air-force brat I followed my Dad from airforce base to airforce base.....you have no clue what airforce dependants go through when there father or mother is deployed on a mission of "national security"and we wait...we wait.... to hear positive or negitive news that your loved one is OK or Dead.....Sheldon you have no clue.....and it saddens me that the "Liberal Left" will never understand what it takes to be "Free" under my Dad and millions of Vets and the military as a whole to keep this country free. Shame on you and all of the others that do not support our miltary.

In response:
Yes, I am relatively free in this country, and I plan to use that freedom to think critically, investigate, and speak freely. What I posted is not about the people that serve in the military, nor their waiting and suffering families. I know that many people who serve have noble intentions and I respect that. But it is not soldiers who make decisons about going to war, but political-corporate elites.

I actually attempt to keep myself informed about present and historic foreign affairs far more than most people. I know of your antipathy towards Obama. Do any of the news sources you currently read or hear ever mention the innocent civililians that are killed by Obama's wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia? I don't imagine so. Because in fact the Democrat and Republicans are both imperialist war parties.

Back in the 1980s the Reagan administration told us lies about the government of Nicaragua, and sponsored a terrorist war against that country. I did go there and worked and lived for 6 months and wandered freely into opposition political party offices that our government claimed were not there.

The Democratic Kennnedy and Johnson administrations told us lies about Vietnam (the gulf of Tonkin) and got us into a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives of both Vietnamese and U.S. soldiers.

The Bush administration told us Saddam Hussien had WMDs, to lead us into a disastrous war, but we know now that he didn't. I learned this was likely the case before the war by listening to what former U.S. Marine and arms inspector Scott Ritter had to say.

I have actually taken the time to listen to all of the Iraq War Veterans Winter Soldier testimony available online which enrages me and breaks my heart to see how good young men and women are used to fight the wars of rich and powerful elites. http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier

Everything I have said here are known historical facts. So don't just tell me I don't have a clue when you have not questioned me why I think the way I do. I welcome any civil and rational discussion with you about these matters. 

The fact of the matter is, while it may take a military to keep us free, it also takes critical thinking people willing to dissent to keep us free.

Quote and Link of the Day..Obama escalates in Yemen – again - Salon.com

Obama escalates in Yemen – again - Salon.com: "As usual, to the extent that most Democrats mention any of this, it will be to celebrate its political value: how it proves that Obama is so very Tough and Strong on national security. Because nothing exudes Strength — or the values of the Nobel Peace Prize — like continuously escalating secret wars and targeting people for death via remote-controlled aircraft from thousands of miles away without even knowing their names.  The innocent corpses, the trampling on accountability and transparency, the ongoing fueling of Endless War, must not be permitted to interfere with the President’s re-election, so all of this is just best ignored, again. Dead Yemenis will be kept out of sight and out of mind, and on those rare occasions when we hear about them, we’ll just tell ourselves that the President is a Good, Magnanimous Man who just wants to Keep us Safe. "

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Thoughts on the Trayvon Martin Killing

Some thoughts on the Trayvon Martin killing by Zimmerman. 


Racists with guns are a dime a dozen. All the focus on Zimmerman's alleged individual racism is serving as a distraction from the larger institutional racism of the Sanford police department and the District Attorney. Black kid gets shot dead, and they shrug their shoulders and hem and haw whether to charge manslaughter? (Really? MANSLAUGHTER?!?!) With all the evidence that they had that Zimmy killer pursued Martin? And the relatively minor injuries he had, and they still pass off that police report and say one of the witnesses' reports supports Zimmerman's story? And the media, including the more liberal MSNBC are giving them a pass and hardly raising tough questions about the racist corruption of the Sanford police and District Attorney?


Zimmerman's PR campaign keeps saying once the facts come out, those facts will clear him. That BS is collapsing quicker than the Twin Towers on 911.


And Fox News and the Righties. They carrying on about MSNBC and who they call the "race-baiters" (Sharpton and Jackson) as "exploiting the story". Well it appears to me that Fox News is exploiting the story to attack Jackson, Sharpton and MSNBC (and hoodies!). The fact of the matter is, it required the media and civil rights leaders to bring this story to national attention. And without that, there would have never been a second look and a special prosecutor investigating this case.


Finally, It was reported that Trayvon Martin was suspended for having a baggie with MJ residue. Big Whooopie! Does anybody have an idea how many people in this country, including white male teenagers have baggies with MJ residue or more in their possession? Give me a Fucking Break!

Does Management Exploit Capital? Not Really, Because Labor Creates Wealth

Does Management Exploit Capital?: "If it's true that the CEO community has created a cartel of interlocking insider-dominated boards that conspire to pay executives above their prevailing wage, the people being victimized are not the firm's low level employees but the firm's owners. You'd be looking primarily at a redistribution of wealth from one set of rich people to another set of rich people. "
'via Blog this'

I am sure there are plenty of better and more sophisticated Marxist critiques of Yglesias/ view,  but its good to remember,  it is labor that creates value, and thus is the exploited  party.

Quotable from Paul at Café of the Cosmic Dance

Café of the Cosmic Dance: "I am a strong believer in the notion that, although everyone has a right to his or her opinions, not all opinions are created equal. Some opinions are forged of sound logic and a weight of evidence. Some other opinions are forged of logical fallacies and bullshit. Many people believe that differences of opinion never reflect differences of intellect. I disagree. Some opinions are so stupid their owners, if not merely ignorant, must be stupid."

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Things Could Be Different, But Won't Be--David Harvey

The Best Kind of Soldier-A Disobedient One

In honor of Veteran's Day, the trailer for one of my most favorite documentaries. Sir, No Sir!

Obama's Anti-War Promises Kept?

Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com: "Second, the Obama administration has been working for months to persuade, pressure and cajole Iraq to allow U.S. troops to remain in that country beyond the deadline. The reason they’re being withdrawn isn’t because Obama insisted on this, but because he tried — but failed — to get out of this obligation. Again, listen to the White House itself:"

The Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq expires at the end of the year. Officials had been discussing the possibility of maintaining several thousand U.S. troops to train Iraqi security forces, and the Iraqis wanted troops to stay but would not give them immunity, a key demand of the administration. . . .

“The Iraqis wanted additional troops to stay,” an administration official said. “We said here are the conditions, including immunities. But the Iraqis because of a variety of reasons wanted the troops and didn’t want to give immunity.”

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The Increasingly Radicalized Paul Krugman

Lately I have become more and more impressed with the extent that Krugman has become not just a mainstream liberal, but more of a voice for a genuine left. And then he come out with this, Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com:

This isn’t the only case where news organizations consistently report as truth something that didn’t happen, while failing to report what did. Another one that comes to mind is the California electricity crisis of 2001-2002. As some readers may recall, that crisis was caused by market manipulation — and that’s not a hypothesis, Enron traders were caught on tape telling plants to shut down to create artificial shortages. Yet “news analyses” published after the whole thing was revealed would often tell readers that excessive environmental regulation and Nimbyism caused the crisis, with nary a mention of the deliberate creation of shortages.

And as you’ll notice, in both cases the imaginary history just happened to be one more comfortable to status quo interests.

I don’t want to go all Chomsky here, but this sort of thing really can radicalize you.

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The Regulation Impedes Job Growth Story Has No Evidence

The Regulation Impedes Job Growth Story Has No Evidence

From the Conclusion:

In short, the "regulation is impeding job growth" story has no evidence to support it. This story is a pure invention of the right wing. Presidential candidates who repeat it should be ridiculed by the media – just as if they were talking about space aliens.

Every Day is Labor Day Part II

Every Day is Labor Day! Day 1

Being the family man and slacker blogger I am, didn't even get around to doing a Labor Day Post. So continueing my lazy blogger ways, I am going to take The Nation's top ten list and post one labor song video a day, but in my order.

Top Ten Labor Day Songs | The Nation:

Lets start with Phil Och's tribute to Joe Hill

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Regulations Can Create Jobs

So our alleged so-called progressive President Obama has caved on new clean air standards. The alibi is that these new regulations would have allegedly "killed jobs", from the New York Times here: "Obama Administration Abandons Stricter Air-Quality Standards"

Never mind the facts of climate change and the adverse effect on our health from dirty air.  The fact is, according to Krugman, these regulations would have created jobs by forcing expenditures on equipment and installation.

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com: "And now you can see why tighter ozone regulation would actually have created jobs: it would have forced firms to spend on upgrading or replacing equipment, helping to boost demand. Yes, it would have cost money — but that’s the point! And with corporations sitting on lots of idle cash, the money spent would not, to any significant extent, come at the expense of other investment."
'via Blog this'

Why can't Obama even stand up for something when he has got an argument on his side?  I say fuck his re-election!

Stand Up and Fight Back!

Quote and Post of Note by Paul Krugman

Economics and Politics by Paul Krugman - The Conscience of a Liberal - NYTimes.com: "Third, the idea that a temporary disruption would permanently damage faith in US institutions now seems moot; if you haven’t already lost faith in US institutions, you’re not paying attention."

Quote and Post of Note From: Pink Scare

pink scare: "Neither of the two pro-business parties, Republican or Democrat, will allow the US to default. They are playing a game of chicken. But, from the sounds of it, they are close to arriving at some sort of 'deal'. The present 'deal' includes a punishing, cruel $3 trillion cut (of historic proportions) to the living standard of the majority of Americans. That means cuts to education, cuts to scholarships, cuts to health care, cuts to pensions, massive cuts to public transportation, cuts to unemployment insurance, cuts to the arts, cuts to cutting edge scientific research. It will mean worse infrastructure, cancelingdesperately needed maintenance on our country's bridges and roads, massive layoffs and severe pay-cuts for public sector workers, worse sanitation services, worse libraries, worse public parks. It means that Obama and the Democrats will sign off on all of this as their own. (The beauty of it for Obama and friends, of course, is that they can push through austerity while externalizing culpability by claiming that "Republicans made us do it", thus pacifying liberal discontent with the slashing and burning of the very policies and programs for which the Democrats have any "progressive" credentials at all). "

Quote and Post of Note from LENIN'S TOMB

LENIN'S TOMB: "Providers' in this statement, as the newspapers have noticed, is synonymous with public sector workers. Essentially, the idea is, through marketisation and competition, to introduce the usual discipline of the market - fear of losing one's livelihood - to drive up productivity and force down labour costs. People will be working harder and receiving less for it. In marxist terms, that's an absolute increase in the rate of exploitation. That's their growth strategy for British capitalism."

And American Capitalism to!

Quote and Post of Note from LBO News from Doug Henwood

LBO News from Doug Henwood: "A jobs program and other New Deal-ish stuff would mess with labor and product markets and the class structure, and so it’s mostly verboten to talk that way. From an elite point of view, the primary problem with a jobs program—and with employment-boosting infrastructure projects—is that they would put a floor under employment, making workers more confident and less likely to do what the boss says, and less dependent on private employers for a paycheck. It would increase the power of labor relative to capital. I’m not sure that Yglesias understands that explicitly, but it’s undoubtedly part of his unexamined “common sense” as a semi-mainstream pundit."

The (Real) Pledge of Allegiance

Copy cat post, hat tip to Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

Hard Truth? More Like Delusional Fantasy

update: oops, edit, I hate bad grammar!


Tim Pawlenty, who seems to take on the persona of a less crazy wing-nut Republican candidate than say Santorum or Palin, is still not above parroting delusional leftist boogey many myths about the Obama administration:

Pawlenty: Obama's Central Planning Fail - Townhall Finance: "“I’m willing to tell Americans the hard truth,” says Pawlenty. “And I believe Americans are ready to hear it. But the truth about our economy isn’t hard at all. Markets work. Barack Obama’s central planning doesn’t.... It’s not the American way.”"

Central planning? Really?! What central planning? Is it becoming obligatory of  Republicans to cast aspersions that Obama is somehow leading the country towards a Soviet style statist socialist future? Just exactly how is Obama instituting anything to do with "central planning" any more than Bush did. This idea is absurd on the face of it.