Dr. Jeffrey Sachs this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe indicated that the U.S. has been involved in Syria for about two years, and it isn't going as well as planned ("what could go wrong"). So there is need for escalation in the name of humanitarianism. Thus, it is being sold as the Goldilocks intervention, not too hard, not too soft, but just right.
"As I’ve repeated for several years, terrorism has not turned out to be a leading threat to public safety, despite the recurrence of occasional violence like the Boston Marathon bomb attacks. Americans have been far more likely to fall victim to murder (more than 180,000 since 9/11) and other forms of violence than to terrorist attacks."
And we are more likely to be struck by lightening than by a terrorist.
Another reason is that there is a lot of money in it for the commanders of military NSA:
"The commanders who lead the nation’s military services and those who oversee troops around the world enjoy an array of perquisites befitting a billionaire, including executive jets, palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.
The elite regional commanders who preside over large swaths of the planet don’t have to settle for Gulfstream V jets. They each have a C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737 ..."
"I am in the horrified camp, and ask myself how in the world people can be indifferent to or even justified what the Egyptian military did." - Juan Cole
"It seems to me that we need to abandon capitalism as production becomes detached from human labor. I think all robot labor should be nationalized and put in the public sector, and all citizens should receive a basic stipend from it."
Alaska had a dynamic like that associated with oil industries. It worked well, because after all, resources under the public land should belong to the public.
Karl Marx predicted that American citizens would rise up when the greedy capitalists began to oppress them by plundering them. He expected too much of U.S. consumers who only went along to get along.
The common good, the public good, has been left somewhere back in history along with the rusting artifacts of industrialization.
I hope the lawsuits and congressional hearings help us make a sorely needed course correction.
BTW, two or so of the Saudi agent hijacker enablers (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabians) were being watched in Florida as well as in California.
"There is a big difference between being a believing Muslim and being a devotee of political Islam. Political Islam attempts to make the religion a platform for gaining governmental power"
Indeed, it was a religious tenet that Winston Churchill believed that got Western Powers into the Middle East where we contend with religious tenets of Islam.
The rebels who drove rusted out Toyota pickup trucks began selling oil-tanker loads of oil to the U.S. months ago.
A full tanker of oil takes hundreds of millions of dollars, involving international business transactions.
Oh of course they arranged all of that themselves in-between racing down the road in the rusty Toyota trucks while shooting people.
The most important thing to western civilization as we speak is the control of oil, because peak oil has happened in 2004 or thereabouts. Who controls oil controls civilization's economic and security future.
Some forms of psyops require the humiliation of the populace to ascertain their resistance / compliance factor. This particular mission is directed at a particular segment of the populace to see what condition their condition is in. In any case it is a sign we have passed peak sanity, whether you believe in peak oil or not.
Wonderful post. Thanks. May I add that some of the projections are based on assumed weather. That means the projections could be even worse because climate is evolving and mutating in ways that are not at all easy to predict.
I think we all know that the behavior that is being exposed is what is doing the damage to the U.S. reputation. The propaganda covering up that behavior is doing damage to the mental well being of the country.
Unless and until they fully consider the crucial ingredient" direction, it is not certain whether the "two state" is a solution or just another problem.
The era of the endless wars is a function of the decline in oil production and the peak of the oil wars. How does the geopolitical landscape change if Iraq becomes the world's number one oil producer, as Lloyd's of London projects, and if the Afghanistan oil fields pan out?
They have allowed the wars to continue paid for by the middle class and poor, so either they tax the rich or get rid of Social Security if they allow the wars to continue.
The food chain is our human source of energy, our food source. If we continue to assassinate the environment, the other energy - oil - will not replace it at any price.
I think "the world" is a bit of a stretch. The Ruler of Dubai does not consider it to be a big deal. The U.S. and those wanting to invade Iran are not "the world".
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This shows, among other things, how much we need to revive our diplomatic corps.
We have more people in military marching bands than in the foreign relations corps dealing with peaceful diplomacy.
Dr. Jeffrey Sachs this morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe indicated that the U.S. has been involved in Syria for about two years, and it isn't going as well as planned ("what could go wrong"). So there is need for escalation in the name of humanitarianism. Thus, it is being sold as the Goldilocks intervention, not too hard, not too soft, but just right.
It is difficult to see how a "coalition of the willing" is going to amount to much under current circumstances.
As Mr. Engelhardt points out, running into reality at the wrong speed hurts.
Power corrupts but absolute power (e.g. sole superpower) corrupts absolutely.
The delusion Mr. Engelhardt mention is a form of corruption that will increase.
All bets are off as to where that will end up exactly, but it will not be pretty, academic, or democratic.
"As I’ve repeated for several years, terrorism has not turned out to be a leading threat to public safety, despite the recurrence of occasional violence like the Boston Marathon bomb attacks. Americans have been far more likely to fall victim to murder (more than 180,000 since 9/11) and other forms of violence than to terrorist attacks."
And we are more likely to be struck by lightening than by a terrorist.
When will we have "the war on lightening"?
"To what end?"
Diversion from the military NSA spying on all Americans, and economic anamolies.
We have let millions be slaughtered over the past decade without a whimper in the press.
A scent of Rome it would seem.
Maybe some of that oil and gas company propaganda has backfired on them.
Huffington Post has an article here which says the oil and gas industry is the most hated in America.
Another reason is that there is a lot of money in it for the commanders of military NSA:
"The commanders who lead the nation’s military services and those who oversee troops around the world enjoy an array of perquisites befitting a billionaire, including executive jets, palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.
The elite regional commanders who preside over large swaths of the planet don’t have to settle for Gulfstream V jets. They each have a C-40, the military equivalent of a Boeing 737 ..."
link to blogdredd.blogspot.com
They have become unhinged.
"This is government as humble man-servant of the least savory sections of big business."
Well said.
The power of the progenitor of feudalism should not be "misunderestimated" nor misunderstood.
"I am in the horrified camp, and ask myself how in the world people can be indifferent to or even justified what the Egyptian military did." - Juan Cole
Count me in as horrified as well.
It is no way to run a country or a civilization.
The general Middle Eastern coup of about a century ago may be unravelling, and will not end well either.
Great post.
Let's hope denialism dies out before civilization does.
Agreed.
Well said.
It is difficult for Americans to psychologically admit what is happening.
ACLU vs. Clapper, et. al.
"Obviously, the government wants the telephone records of millions of Americans for some other reason."
Yep.
Traditionally it has been used for "blackmail" ... the hoodlum form of "lobbying" ...
J. Edgar Hoover invented the dynamic and "wrote the book on it" in our country.
It is so bad and evil it is really not conceivable to the majority of us. Of Americans.
Great graphics which depict Oil-Qaeda very well.
The only terrorists that kill millons already.
Every year.
Neocons don't ever seem to stop to think clearly.
It makes it easier to see why our founders said some of the things they did. Especially about the military.
Smart move by Kenya.
Yep.
Not a good idea to spread the conflict.
Let the homies solve their own problems ... with some fair encouragement from neighbors.
The amount of sea-level rise in this century, as calculated by various scientists, is all over the place.
I mean from two feet to 30 feet.
One of the reasons is that there needs to be more inter-disciplinary sharing of scientific data.
"It seems to me that we need to abandon capitalism as production becomes detached from human labor. I think all robot labor should be nationalized and put in the public sector, and all citizens should receive a basic stipend from it."
Alaska had a dynamic like that associated with oil industries. It worked well, because after all, resources under the public land should belong to the public.
Karl Marx predicted that American citizens would rise up when the greedy capitalists began to oppress them by plundering them. He expected too much of U.S. consumers who only went along to get along.
The common good, the public good, has been left somewhere back in history along with the rusting artifacts of industrialization.
Thanks for covering this.
I hope the lawsuits and congressional hearings help us make a sorely needed course correction.
BTW, two or so of the Saudi agent hijacker enablers (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi Arabians) were being watched in Florida as well as in California.
Thanks for an very informative post.
A great band.
A well-done satire that also applies to the main stream media for covering up for tyranny.
Good points.
"There is a big difference between being a believing Muslim and being a devotee of political Islam. Political Islam attempts to make the religion a platform for gaining governmental power"
Indeed, it was a religious tenet that Winston Churchill believed that got Western Powers into the Middle East where we contend with religious tenets of Islam.
Albeit through political religion on both sides.
This is American History 901.
One other thing making green green difficult to swallow is the black green booty getting all pumped up near our most bootyfull embassy in Baghdad.
The rebels who drove rusted out Toyota pickup trucks began selling oil-tanker loads of oil to the U.S. months ago.
A full tanker of oil takes hundreds of millions of dollars, involving international business transactions.
Oh of course they arranged all of that themselves in-between racing down the road in the rusty Toyota trucks while shooting people.
The most important thing to western civilization as we speak is the control of oil, because peak oil has happened in 2004 or thereabouts. Who controls oil controls civilization's economic and security future.
These good graphs are all around, yet the House keeps sucking its thumb for power or pleasure, not sure which.
Some forms of psyops require the humiliation of the populace to ascertain their resistance / compliance factor. This particular mission is directed at a particular segment of the populace to see what condition their condition is in. In any case it is a sign we have passed peak sanity, whether you believe in peak oil or not.
GE / MSNBC is a war profiteer of the first order, closely tied to the Pentagon.
Often the opposite is true of demented statements like Broder's. The dementia of military thinking is obvious when one considers that military thinkers consider health care to be their worst enemy, when actually war is the bigger enemy.
Scary indeed, but these types of Halloween scary come from the same place, The Twinkie Party System.
It is far more insidious that previously thought.
Wonderful post. Thanks. May I add that some of the projections are based on assumed weather. That means the projections could be even worse because climate is evolving and mutating in ways that are not at all easy to predict.
I think we all know that the behavior that is being exposed is what is doing the damage to the U.S. reputation. The propaganda covering up that behavior is doing damage to the mental well being of the country.
I am afraid. Afraid that Palin will get by with it like Bush II is preparing to do.
And the fresh, or potable water is doing likewise, taking us in a catastrophic direction.
Good post.
The wind is not just for the birds any more.
Unless and until they fully consider the crucial ingredient" direction, it is not certain whether the "two state" is a solution or just another problem.
Well said.
We have not only failed to deal with our war criminals in a just manner, we have emulated them in current policy.
The era of the endless wars is a function of the decline in oil production and the peak of the oil wars. How does the geopolitical landscape change if Iraq becomes the world's number one oil producer, as Lloyd's of London projects, and if the Afghanistan oil fields pan out?
A sad state of affairs indeed. Especially since Lloyd's of London expects Iraq to become the number one oil producer.
They have allowed the wars to continue paid for by the middle class and poor, so either they tax the rich or get rid of Social Security if they allow the wars to continue.
Wars are not free.
Iraqi Parties reject US Power Sharing Proposal
You know how those oily old warlords are, now don't you?
Jack an Jill went up the hill
each had a dollar and a quarter
Jill came back with two and a half
do you think they went up for water?
Now that Iraq will become the number one oil producer in the world soon, do you think the war was not really about oil now?
Once upon a time we solved problems, now we "attack" our problems as if military destruction was a panacea for peace.
The war profiteers being firmly in control would seem to indicate this is our final chapter as an empire.
The food chain is our human source of energy, our food source. If we continue to assassinate the environment, the other energy - oil - will not replace it at any price.
It will be very difficult for BP to put a cap on this. Even the cap on the well has problems.
Wow. On a day when we are all hoping BP caps the Deepwater gusher (HOLD CAP HOLD!) we hear of BP shenanigans once again.
Mazar Demonstration says 'Yankee Go Home'
Yeah, "Yankee go home but leave your money here" is what the corrupt officials are thinking over there.
I think "the world" is a bit of a stretch. The Ruler of Dubai does not consider it to be a big deal. The U.S. and those wanting to invade Iran are not "the world".
One outrageous aspect of this debacle is that scientists studied the Gulf of Mexico seabed and found it unstable and dangerous to drilling in many places.
They foresaw an ecological and economic disaster of great impact if oil rigs drilled into some of the more unstable areas.
The study by scientists commissioned by the U.S. government goes back a decade.