Plainly the US emphasis of military intervention over education and other development aid is counterproductive. But saying that does not address the underlying problem. The problem is that the US is controlled by economic concentrations whose sole concern is force and control: it does not have any benevolent intentions because its leaders are not benevolent, they are with few exceptions selfish bullies by nature and training. Improvements will get nowhere until this is changed.
The US has selfish bullies in power because the Constitution has no provisions to regulate economic power, which has thereby come to control elections and mass media. Those who rise to power in business and politics are bullies and power schemers, the worst element in the nation, and we no longer have a choice of anyone but primitive bullies and schemers as leaders.
The worst element now controls mass media and elections, the tools of democracy, and there is no way to get those back without violence or extended economic collapse.
Those who merely wish for benevolent foreign policies will get nowhere. Action is the sole path to improvement.
Only because the most ignorant and irresponsible members of any potential audience - the ones who need the education - don't count any casualties among those for whom they have no sympathy. They will stop reading when they hear about foreign casualties, having been trained in blaming victims. Give them the US body count first, and they might actually see a connection with other body counts.
"Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal and his regime is known for mass torture of prisoners."
Unfortunately this is true of every dictator the US has installed, and the regime-change fascists never care, so obviously that is not their concern, it is their propaganda. It will not do to pretend that a government can play nice during a revolution. The objection is that the government is not democratic, but neither are any others in the region. The true objection is that it is not majority-controlled, but it would not be more just if it were: it would be another Saudi Arabia.
This article ignores the obvious conjunction of motives for the Syrian conflict: Israeli fascism, Saudi fanaticism, and a few US loonie anti-Russian warmongers. There is no other motive for US intervention among its advocates.
You fail to argue that you should choose one dangerous and incompetent candidate over the other. You can either not vote or punish the Dems for their conspiracy of sexists and warmongers, which betrayed their constituency and their office. Looking at one side's faults is transparent propaganda.
There are many objections to Trump, but the notion that he would "cave to Russia" should be tossed as mere neofascist propaganda. Exactly where do you see Russian aggression? In Ukraine, where the alleged invading armored divisions were invisible to everyone? In Crimea, long Russian and which voted to return, and where Russia has one of its few naval bases, which total a tiny percentage of the US bases? In Syria, where they protected their other naval base and prevented a jihadist takeover there and in Iraq? Only a right-wing warmonger would see those as aggression.
Dissent within the military at high levels is one of the best weapons against the lunacy of the tyrant warmongers, and is the highest duty of those in and of the military, in a nation which since WWII has made no legitimate use but only abuse of military power, and has no security threats not of its own making.
Our highest praise should be for for Mr. Astore and his kind, who have shown true patriotism, loyalty to the People and to humanity. They have risen above the primitive tribal loyalty demanded by the abusers of the military, the right-wing tyrants over democracy against whom Aristotle warned.
When tyranny falls, and when right-wing coups fail, it is because the proper loyalties within the military have prevailed over the false tribal patriotism of the right wing.
Only such true loyalty to the People will restore democracy in the US from the oligarchy that controls the mass media and elections, who demand eternal war for the campaign bribes of Israel and the lunatic anti-Russians of the oligarchy.
The military must ridicule the warmongers of the right wing, ridicule the claims of democracy promotion by those who have subverted democracy and destroyed nation after nation, and ridicule the politicians who demand endless wars for national security that obviously have ruined the security of the US, and ridicule those who claim humanitarian goals for the wars that have left a trail of destruction and failed states around the world. Those people are abusers of the military and everyone else, and should be hounded from office.
Your rosy gloss of global appreciation of the US is quite counterfactual.
Certainly Naziism/fascism/Stalinism were more despised while they lasted, and the central European dictators locally resented, but the world has never known a power more broadly and consistently anti-democratic than the US. While the US "defended" democracies in WWI/II, it let the USSR defeat 95% of fascist resources, has never established a democracy, has overthrown many democracies and replaced them with dictators, and since 1952 has done nothing for anyone, merely propagandizing for the benefit of domestic tyrants.
So far there is no evidence whatsoever of "Chinese adventurism": a contest of territorial waters does not compare with the US constant secret wars of hegemony in the Americas. It is the US that provokes China and NK with exercises that it would never tolerate on its own boundaries. and it plainly is spoiling for a fight in hope of creating a war pretext for domestic tyranny. This is ancient anti-communist propaganda.
You are also wrong that NATO thinks well of the US, in any area beyond military aid. They are plainly embarrassed by US aggression in Ukraine. As always, the US buys "coalitions of the willing" for its military provocations. Eastern Europe entrants to NATO get money from the US and NATO, that is all. It is not plausible that they seek to be used like Napoleon's conquered armies there, as advance forces to fight Russia for no reason, and they will turn on the US as they turned on Napoleon when the battle goes against us.
The idea that the US has provided "balance and protection" for a beneficial world order since 1945 is propaganda. The US has done nothing for world order since then, merely pretending that its endless wars on socialism and democracy somehow must advance that goal. It was believable in the McCarthy era, for those who dutifully swallowed the "containment" line, but no more.
The tyrants who have subverted US democracy since WWII cannot take credit for technical advances or economic progress since then.
Well put, even without caps. History would see those SOBs as properly disposed at club fed Guantanamo for a few years of "rectal feeding" until received by Iran or Iraq for execution by dragging across the landscape until unrecognizable, and then processing into dog food. Same for about a thousand of their accomplices. And a few million of their supporters should be condemned to drift homeless across central Asia. They well knew the effect of their crimes.
Of course Hillary will offer hopey-changey on all of these points after the election. Realism, you know. Just can't fight those oligarchs who pay the bills.
Sanders supporters themselves could have done a lot better than Sanders. Better people are out there all over. But they don't get the critical oligarch support to get visibility.
Sanders people don't need hope. If they don't have the courage to take direct action, they will do better to vote for one of the Repub loonies who will bring down the oligarchy much faster.
That is, oppose foreign alliances with powers that seek division and weakening for their own gain, such as the US and NATO countries. Seek alliance with those that have primarily foreign trade gains.
The article is pleasant in principle but needs a road map to that future of pan-Arabism on several fronts: the reduction of divisive sectarianism, unity against Israeli/US disruption and foreign intervention.
But historical precedents are lacking for unification without a common cause. Since WWII the common cause that unifies has usually been nationalism and communism, and has operated within ethnic national borders. How otherwise create a unity sufficiently militant to topple oligarchies? The group most likely to do that are the poor allied with some of the middle class, and they cannot do that when divided by sectarianism.
Perhaps you can turn pan-Arabism against sectarian leaders, promote secular ideologies (Ghadafi and Baathism?) like socialism, and oppose all foreign alliances. Your best bet there would probably be alliance with Russia and China. The US is no more than an infectious disease of progress.
The comparison of electoral defects is useful, but of course the central problem is money in mass media and elections. The US has no democracy at all until those tools of democracy are protected from economic concentrations by constitutional amendments.
Without mass media and elections free of economic control, the US will need far more than another 1776 to restore democracy. The US oligarchy is an aristocracy far worse than the relatively mild British colonialism thrown off by the US and India in forming the two largest democracies. It is more like the Czars of Russia, thrown off only by the secretive militarism of communist organization.
The article does not argue the feasibility or position of candidate Sanders. It also does not argue its thesis, that an SDP and a "conservative" party would improve matters. Changing party names does not make them follow the nominal philosophy, and adding parties does not change the underlying problems of dominance of debate by money.
It would be better to have a genuine SDP, but that cannot happen because the mass media and elections are controlled already by economic power. That is the central problem, and it cannot be solved by political means because those tools of democracy are already controlled by the anti-democratic forces of economic concentrations.
So the underlying question is really How do you propose to free mass media and elections from control by money, without another American Revolution as in 1776? The answer is not to hide from the facts and dream that the battle is not yet entirely lost, that somehow you will prevail without a free press and fair elections. You will not restore democracy with nonviolent dreams.
Advocating hope for nonviolent change is a foolish sellout, paid for by the right wing.
The right wing controls the government because it controls the tools of democracy, elections and mass media, with money gained by the selfishness and lack of ethics that succeed in business and disqualify them from public office. The right wing by definition consists of those who speak only the language of force. They do not have words for opinion, protest, or nonviolence. If you want to persuade them you must speak their language, otherwise you are hiding in the closet.
They would love to have you singing folksongs and waving signs in your designated protest area, ignored by their media. The American revolution of 1776 did not rely upon nonviolence and would have been an absurd failure if it had. The only nonviolent activity that displaces the right wing is the education of rioters.
None of the mentioned gains against the right wing were obtained by peaceful means. The civil rights acts of the 1960s were gained by riots in the streets: not until then did the right wing pretend to have been persuaded by protestors. Gay rights like female suffrage were obtained by offers they could not refuse, personal relationships with judges, like any other coercion. Climate change is a non-issue designed by the right wing to waste the energy of the left: please, oh please waste your time protesting a someday somehow issue unconnected with the fundamental problem.
Go play in your corner and leave the right wing to be your masters.
It seems likely that the USSR had the best chance of bringing peace and progress and ultimately democracy to central Asia, with a nonsectarian ideology likely to encourage cooperation among the religious factions. It would have done that at the expense of the USSR with no burden upon the US.
But the lunatic bully-boy Republicans had to destroy the future of the people there so as to pose as protectors, creating Al Qaeda and further generations of strife, impoverishing the US and creating enemies for us around the world for generations.
The US would have done far better with communists or randomly selected people in Washington than with the Republican punks.
An insurgency that effectively targets the oligarchs and mass media might work better. Geriatric suicide bombers supplied by dual agents in the military. Virtual secession movements in VT, NH, CA, and WA.
1. One site says to avoid all products with a barcode starting with 729 ("7 29").
2. A UN summary report 1/26/18 which does not list the companies is available as a PDF at:
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/database-all-business-enterprises-and-human-rights-israeli
3. A report 1/31/18 states that publication was indefinitely postpones under US/Israeli pressure.
The UNHCR stated that it would publish the list in 12/2017 but Google appears to have suppressed it.
Plainly the US emphasis of military intervention over education and other development aid is counterproductive. But saying that does not address the underlying problem. The problem is that the US is controlled by economic concentrations whose sole concern is force and control: it does not have any benevolent intentions because its leaders are not benevolent, they are with few exceptions selfish bullies by nature and training. Improvements will get nowhere until this is changed.
The US has selfish bullies in power because the Constitution has no provisions to regulate economic power, which has thereby come to control elections and mass media. Those who rise to power in business and politics are bullies and power schemers, the worst element in the nation, and we no longer have a choice of anyone but primitive bullies and schemers as leaders.
The worst element now controls mass media and elections, the tools of democracy, and there is no way to get those back without violence or extended economic collapse.
Those who merely wish for benevolent foreign policies will get nowhere. Action is the sole path to improvement.
Only because the most ignorant and irresponsible members of any potential audience - the ones who need the education - don't count any casualties among those for whom they have no sympathy. They will stop reading when they hear about foreign casualties, having been trained in blaming victims. Give them the US body count first, and they might actually see a connection with other body counts.
"Bashar al-Assad is a war criminal and his regime is known for mass torture of prisoners."
Unfortunately this is true of every dictator the US has installed, and the regime-change fascists never care, so obviously that is not their concern, it is their propaganda. It will not do to pretend that a government can play nice during a revolution. The objection is that the government is not democratic, but neither are any others in the region. The true objection is that it is not majority-controlled, but it would not be more just if it were: it would be another Saudi Arabia.
This article ignores the obvious conjunction of motives for the Syrian conflict: Israeli fascism, Saudi fanaticism, and a few US loonie anti-Russian warmongers. There is no other motive for US intervention among its advocates.
You fail to argue that you should choose one dangerous and incompetent candidate over the other. You can either not vote or punish the Dems for their conspiracy of sexists and warmongers, which betrayed their constituency and their office. Looking at one side's faults is transparent propaganda.
There are many objections to Trump, but the notion that he would "cave to Russia" should be tossed as mere neofascist propaganda. Exactly where do you see Russian aggression? In Ukraine, where the alleged invading armored divisions were invisible to everyone? In Crimea, long Russian and which voted to return, and where Russia has one of its few naval bases, which total a tiny percentage of the US bases? In Syria, where they protected their other naval base and prevented a jihadist takeover there and in Iraq? Only a right-wing warmonger would see those as aggression.
Dissent within the military at high levels is one of the best weapons against the lunacy of the tyrant warmongers, and is the highest duty of those in and of the military, in a nation which since WWII has made no legitimate use but only abuse of military power, and has no security threats not of its own making.
Our highest praise should be for for Mr. Astore and his kind, who have shown true patriotism, loyalty to the People and to humanity. They have risen above the primitive tribal loyalty demanded by the abusers of the military, the right-wing tyrants over democracy against whom Aristotle warned.
When tyranny falls, and when right-wing coups fail, it is because the proper loyalties within the military have prevailed over the false tribal patriotism of the right wing.
Only such true loyalty to the People will restore democracy in the US from the oligarchy that controls the mass media and elections, who demand eternal war for the campaign bribes of Israel and the lunatic anti-Russians of the oligarchy.
The military must ridicule the warmongers of the right wing, ridicule the claims of democracy promotion by those who have subverted democracy and destroyed nation after nation, and ridicule the politicians who demand endless wars for national security that obviously have ruined the security of the US, and ridicule those who claim humanitarian goals for the wars that have left a trail of destruction and failed states around the world. Those people are abusers of the military and everyone else, and should be hounded from office.
Your rosy gloss of global appreciation of the US is quite counterfactual.
Certainly Naziism/fascism/Stalinism were more despised while they lasted, and the central European dictators locally resented, but the world has never known a power more broadly and consistently anti-democratic than the US. While the US "defended" democracies in WWI/II, it let the USSR defeat 95% of fascist resources, has never established a democracy, has overthrown many democracies and replaced them with dictators, and since 1952 has done nothing for anyone, merely propagandizing for the benefit of domestic tyrants.
So far there is no evidence whatsoever of "Chinese adventurism": a contest of territorial waters does not compare with the US constant secret wars of hegemony in the Americas. It is the US that provokes China and NK with exercises that it would never tolerate on its own boundaries. and it plainly is spoiling for a fight in hope of creating a war pretext for domestic tyranny. This is ancient anti-communist propaganda.
You are also wrong that NATO thinks well of the US, in any area beyond military aid. They are plainly embarrassed by US aggression in Ukraine. As always, the US buys "coalitions of the willing" for its military provocations. Eastern Europe entrants to NATO get money from the US and NATO, that is all. It is not plausible that they seek to be used like Napoleon's conquered armies there, as advance forces to fight Russia for no reason, and they will turn on the US as they turned on Napoleon when the battle goes against us.
The idea that the US has provided "balance and protection" for a beneficial world order since 1945 is propaganda. The US has done nothing for world order since then, merely pretending that its endless wars on socialism and democracy somehow must advance that goal. It was believable in the McCarthy era, for those who dutifully swallowed the "containment" line, but no more.
The tyrants who have subverted US democracy since WWII cannot take credit for technical advances or economic progress since then.
Well put, even without caps. History would see those SOBs as properly disposed at club fed Guantanamo for a few years of "rectal feeding" until received by Iran or Iraq for execution by dragging across the landscape until unrecognizable, and then processing into dog food. Same for about a thousand of their accomplices. And a few million of their supporters should be condemned to drift homeless across central Asia. They well knew the effect of their crimes.
Of course Hillary will offer hopey-changey on all of these points after the election. Realism, you know. Just can't fight those oligarchs who pay the bills.
Sanders supporters themselves could have done a lot better than Sanders. Better people are out there all over. But they don't get the critical oligarch support to get visibility.
Sanders people don't need hope. If they don't have the courage to take direct action, they will do better to vote for one of the Repub loonies who will bring down the oligarchy much faster.
That is, oppose foreign alliances with powers that seek division and weakening for their own gain, such as the US and NATO countries. Seek alliance with those that have primarily foreign trade gains.
The article is pleasant in principle but needs a road map to that future of pan-Arabism on several fronts: the reduction of divisive sectarianism, unity against Israeli/US disruption and foreign intervention.
But historical precedents are lacking for unification without a common cause. Since WWII the common cause that unifies has usually been nationalism and communism, and has operated within ethnic national borders. How otherwise create a unity sufficiently militant to topple oligarchies? The group most likely to do that are the poor allied with some of the middle class, and they cannot do that when divided by sectarianism.
Perhaps you can turn pan-Arabism against sectarian leaders, promote secular ideologies (Ghadafi and Baathism?) like socialism, and oppose all foreign alliances. Your best bet there would probably be alliance with Russia and China. The US is no more than an infectious disease of progress.
The comparison of electoral defects is useful, but of course the central problem is money in mass media and elections. The US has no democracy at all until those tools of democracy are protected from economic concentrations by constitutional amendments.
Without mass media and elections free of economic control, the US will need far more than another 1776 to restore democracy. The US oligarchy is an aristocracy far worse than the relatively mild British colonialism thrown off by the US and India in forming the two largest democracies. It is more like the Czars of Russia, thrown off only by the secretive militarism of communist organization.
The article does not argue the feasibility or position of candidate Sanders. It also does not argue its thesis, that an SDP and a "conservative" party would improve matters. Changing party names does not make them follow the nominal philosophy, and adding parties does not change the underlying problems of dominance of debate by money.
It would be better to have a genuine SDP, but that cannot happen because the mass media and elections are controlled already by economic power. That is the central problem, and it cannot be solved by political means because those tools of democracy are already controlled by the anti-democratic forces of economic concentrations.
So the underlying question is really How do you propose to free mass media and elections from control by money, without another American Revolution as in 1776? The answer is not to hide from the facts and dream that the battle is not yet entirely lost, that somehow you will prevail without a free press and fair elections. You will not restore democracy with nonviolent dreams.
Advocating hope for nonviolent change is a foolish sellout, paid for by the right wing.
The right wing controls the government because it controls the tools of democracy, elections and mass media, with money gained by the selfishness and lack of ethics that succeed in business and disqualify them from public office. The right wing by definition consists of those who speak only the language of force. They do not have words for opinion, protest, or nonviolence. If you want to persuade them you must speak their language, otherwise you are hiding in the closet.
They would love to have you singing folksongs and waving signs in your designated protest area, ignored by their media. The American revolution of 1776 did not rely upon nonviolence and would have been an absurd failure if it had. The only nonviolent activity that displaces the right wing is the education of rioters.
None of the mentioned gains against the right wing were obtained by peaceful means. The civil rights acts of the 1960s were gained by riots in the streets: not until then did the right wing pretend to have been persuaded by protestors. Gay rights like female suffrage were obtained by offers they could not refuse, personal relationships with judges, like any other coercion. Climate change is a non-issue designed by the right wing to waste the energy of the left: please, oh please waste your time protesting a someday somehow issue unconnected with the fundamental problem.
Go play in your corner and leave the right wing to be your masters.
It seems likely that the USSR had the best chance of bringing peace and progress and ultimately democracy to central Asia, with a nonsectarian ideology likely to encourage cooperation among the religious factions. It would have done that at the expense of the USSR with no burden upon the US.
But the lunatic bully-boy Republicans had to destroy the future of the people there so as to pose as protectors, creating Al Qaeda and further generations of strife, impoverishing the US and creating enemies for us around the world for generations.
The US would have done far better with communists or randomly selected people in Washington than with the Republican punks.
An insurgency that effectively targets the oligarchs and mass media might work better. Geriatric suicide bombers supplied by dual agents in the military. Virtual secession movements in VT, NH, CA, and WA.