Are you pro-choice?

Are you pro-choice?

I know I am.

And while I believe a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body, that’s not what I’m talking about here.

Let me offer a recent and extremely important example.

When in December of 2021, when Russia notified the US and its allies that it was very concerned about the troops, missiles, bases, and other military assets deployed against its borders, it offered a draft treaty which would cool tensions and promote peace in Europe. The US and NATO refused to even look at the treaty. Were we the people given a choice in the matter? Were we properly and accurately informed about what the treaty contained, its pros and cons? Of course not. Because had citizens looked at it objectively, with complete disclosure as to its intent and effect, they would have most likely thought it was reasonable and constructive, and opted for it. We are now living the nightmare resulting from the snub of the Russian proposal. The entire Ukraine mess didn’t have to happen. But it did because of the choice of a tiny number of short-sighted, war-obsessed policy makers, sans any democratic approval by the vast majority of citizens, who now must deal with the consequences.

Since that war broke out, the U.S. has allocated at least $65 billion — some put the figure at over $100 billion and counting — in military and economic assistance to the regime in Kiev. Were we given a choice in THAT? Did Biden, Blinken or any of the warmongers in Congress ask: “Should we send more weapons to Ukraine to further exacerbate the war, further intimidate Russia, OR should we spend that money on improving our schools, infrastructure, OR MAYBE provide relief to Americans who have been hard hit by the disastrous economy, loss of jobs, the Covid-19 lockdowns?” I don’t remember hearing THAT choice being aired to the public.

I’m pro-choice, alright. In the much broader sense of having choice as a citizen about what is done in my name with the tax dollars and immense resources of the United States.

I’m talking about America’s decisions to go around the world killing people, destroying nations, imposing its imperial agenda on other allegedly sovereign nations. I’m talking about the heavy hand of our government deciding what version of the “truth” citizens get in the news and from their elected officials. I’m talking about critical choices made about America’s place in the world, our relationships with every other nation, who is our friend, who is designated as our enemy; deciding the kind of country we now live in and will hand off to future generations; directing what opportunities and basic services will be available to us; determining what guarantees are in place to make sure our legal system works to the benefit of every citizen equally; writing and enforcing the regulations and laws which prevent the abuse of power by our government officials, those elected and otherwise; determining how our system works to hold those in power accountable, what is done to prevent corruption, graft and cronyism; instituting and maintaining electoral procedures and mechanisms which protect the constitutional voting privileges of every citizen, fully guaranteeing free and fair elections. Yes, I’m talking about the way government functions, how well it functions. How the enormous revenue stream gets allocated, what gets funded, who benefits. I’m talking about free and full access to official communication, information and documentation, full transparency about what goes on in those offices and buildings. After all, we’re paying for all of it. We should have complete disclosure as well as final decision-making power on how our money is being spent.

Finally and certainly most importantly, since our survival on the planet is being seriously threatened by horrible decisions in this arena, WE THE PEOPLE should have final say on putting our nation and economy on a war footing, militarily confronting other countries, and most certainly the ultimate decision — a responsibility that now even our pathetic Congress spinelessly avoids — MAKING THE CHOICE TO GO TO WAR.

All of these decisions are being made — often behind closed doors or a smoke-screen of propaganda, lies and rationalizations — and we as citizens have no say in any of it.

No choice!

So yeah, I’M PRO-CHOICE!

The voice of the people has been totally silenced. We no longer can even ask simple, obvious questions about most critical matters which impact our daily existence, which determine the quality of our lives, which define the kind of country we now and future generations will live in. If we don’t stay inside the safe, approved boundaries of the official narratives, we are marginalized, often ridiculed, if not completely censored. Which might be tolerable if the country was in good shape and on a solid path of improvement and progress. I don’t have to point out how totally screwed up everything is now.

I’m for having a decisive say in the way things run. Recognize, this is hardly a weird or controversial demand. It’s the very essence of SELF-GOVERNMENT — which is what I have always been told is the defining feature of our democracy, the great experiment in self-rule. No kings, no dukes, no emperors, no dictators, no pouty paranoid bureaucrats. Just us, we the people!

This means WE THE PEOPLE taking back the power which has been usurped by a class of self-anointed control freaks, influence peddlers, power brokers, professional politicos who have decided that we regular folks are a bunch of clueless children and they know what’s best for us.

Enough is enough. Tyranny under the smiley-face of fake democracy must be stopped IMMEDIATELY!

This is non-negotiable . . .

WE THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE A CHOICE — the decisive choice — whenever anything of consequence affecting our nation comes up for consideration.

So yes, I can say without qualification or equivocation, I’M PRO-CHOICE!

And you should be too.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Are you pro-choice? | John Rachel

World War III is coming . . . LET’S DANCE!

We are sleepwalking into the greatest catastrophe in human history.

More accurately, we may be sleepwalking into the end of human history. The end of everything. Period!

Leaders in the US, NATO and the EU have openly stated they intend the Ukraine conflict to go on for a very long time. And remember, this is not about Ukraine. Zelensky is a joke, which makes sense, because he used to be a comedian. He’s perfectly qualified to be a joke. But these days he’s not funny. At all!

Russia does not want war. Russia does not want any of the animosity coming from the West. I can give hundreds of examples of Russia trying to cooperate with us. Now they’re simply fed up. They’re not going to tolerate the lies and broken promises anymore.

US and its NATO allies want to destroy Russia. That’s it in a nutshell. They have all along. Russia did not start this war. US and NATO gave Russia no alternative but to invade.

And the lunatics who are pushing for this will risk everything. They are even talking about nuclear war becoming more inevitable.

Are you getting this? Do you see where we’re headed?

We have one option: Removing these crazies from power. Appealing to them is ridiculous. They’re not listening. They don’t care what we sane and sensible people think. Period! They only know war and conquest. Now it’s destroy Russia and steal everything. Next it’s destroy China and steal everything. If we don’t all die in a nuclear holocaust, we will be in the middle of permanent war and slaughter for the next 20 years.

If there are any serious plans for stopping these maniacs, I’m not aware of them. The Peace Dividend strategy is a long shot. But as far as I can see, it’s all we have. You’ve heard the pleas emanating from the current peace movement . . . “Oh pretty please! Stop the wars. No more bombing Yemen. Bring the troops home. Let’s all be nice to one another!”

You want to see how well this will work? Try telling an anteater to stop eating ants. Next time there’s a thunderstorm, stand on your porch and yell at the clouds. 

So what’s with the title? Well, I have been known to venture into sarcasm . . . at least a few times.

Truth is, I’m completely overwhelmed, underwhelmed, shocked, numb, and baffled. Thus, if everyone now being subjected to the 24/7 barrage of war propaganda, runaway inflation, food shortages, elementary school shootings, a crumbling economy, a totally inept and corrupt governing class, Covid-19 fear porn, monkeypox fear porn, now even casual talk about throwing nukes into the equation . . . yes, if everyone one night just went out into the streets, all 330 million of us, and started dancing, honestly? . . . IT WOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE!

Because THAT’S how nuts everything is these days!

But you know what? Quite honestly, it would be phenomenal to see such a show of unity — as surreal a show as it might be. Because for a few happy moments at least, or however long our little street party lasted, we wouldn’t be at each other’s throats, we’d stop the yelling and blaming and hating, and instead be showing off our best dance moves, shaking our booties, and just having a darn good time. I think it’s a great idea!

Which is my way of saying that more than ever before, we need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back, belly-to-belly, embrace and celebrate what we have in common, and put aside all differences that ultimately aren’t that important. We need to feel human again. We need to fully appreciate one another and understand that unified we are strong, divided we are weak and just pawns in someone else’s game, and that someone else sees us as “expendables”, just cannon fodder in wars to protect their wealth and power. We need to see who the real enemies are. Don’t be fooled by the lies. It’s not you and I that are the problem. We don’t start wars, we don’t crash the economy, we don’t loot the Treasury, we don’t jack up the contagiousness of viruses and inflict them on the rest of humankind, we don’t deprive one another of our share of the vast wealth of this country.

So getting together, whether it’s to dance, or to protest the abuses and humiliations we all endure just trying to survive, or to show up en masse at the polls and vote the pay-for-play lapdogs of the rich and powerful out of office, or to just talk to one another and try to sort out the mess our country is in — yes, getting together — is exactly what we must be doing!

It’s not just a pretty thought. Frankly it’s a matter of survival!

These wars will never end until we the people end them. Or the wars end us.

Yes, it’s that bad. And getting worse by the day.

You think I’m exaggerating? When is the last time you heard any of these blabbermouths on TV, in the media, or in government talk about … wait for it … (drumroll) … PEACE?

I rest my case.

Not long ago I came across a video that turns me into a crying old fool every time I watch it. And I won’t tell you how many times that is. It’s embarrassing and I’m surprised I’m not a dehydrated pile of talcum powder. Check it out!

First off, some things are SO BEAUTIFUL, only tears can express the total profound joy I’m feeling. Such a magnificent song, with such a powerful message! Seeing every size and shape musician, from across the globe, every color and religion and culture, come together just to make great music, to make Cat Stevens’ work of genius come alive again. Whew!

But there’s a darker side to my tears. Cat Stevens performed this the last time in America at the height of his popularity, near the end of his legendary North America tour. That was 1976. Meaning this amazing call for peace has been around for close to a half century. And look at the state the world is in. As inspiring as this masterpiece was back then, we never got on the “peace train”. Now forty-five years later. No peace train. No peace.

And that’s also something to cry about.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

World War III is coming . . . LET’S DANCE! | John Rachel

War is the answer! But what was the question?

In the forums for our national conversation, there is no earnest discussion of peace and cooperation now … period! I’m not talking lip service or political posturing. I’m talking REAL DISCUSSION, widespread, inclusive, comprehensive discussion. In the media, by our leaders, among everyday people. NONE!

We have a war economy, a war on terror, troops fighting in seven countries (that we know of), over 800 military bases across the planet, countless secret missions and ops, soon weapons in space, and to add more gasoline to the fire are insulting and openly hostile to Russia and China — apparently to provoke them into a war. We the public are to believe the only available options are how much war and who to attack next.

There are no prominent media platforms, no high-visibility celebrities, no folk or pop songs being aired, no TV shows or movies, no major love-ins/teach-ins/sit-ins, no massive demonstrations, promoting peace.

If spectacle is out of the question because of Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing, an effective peace movement would at bare minimum establish a national conversation about peace with the powerful tools that are available. But the current appeals for peace are a total washout. That’s the reality. There are sparsely-attended Zoom sessions, enthusiastic but isolated and very small clusters of activists, occasional listless street protests, none of which create enough buzz to be news to the greater mass of American citizens. They hear as much about peace now as they hear about powdered wigs.

As for our spokespersons at a federal level, all they officially talk about is “defending our national interest” — whatever that means — and the need for bigger, more powerful, more exotic, more expensive weapons. This salivating for a bigger badder military is bipartisan. Apparently blowing things up, creating animosity, and making more refugees are the only items the Democrats and Republicans can agree on.

But here’s the wrench in the gears of this doomsday machine: The simple, obvious truth is, all of the current talk about the urgent need to extend and expand our military is predicated on completely flawed thinking and a deceptive premise, one that we’re hearing belched out with teeth-gritting hysteria more and more these days. 

Here it is:

“We can’t win a war against China or Russia, much less both at the same time.”

Actually yes! This is completely accurate. 

BUT THE REAL TRUTH IS, THIS SHOULD BE A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION. Because THEY can’t win a war against us either! It’s a perfect standoff. No one wins. No one loses. Why bother?

What a relief! There will be no war. Right?

Wrong.

Instead, it’s the basis of the further absurd claim that since we can’t beat Russia or China, we are militarily weak, vulnerable, lacking the necessary hardware and fire power. It’s used to promote expanding the military even more. 

Where’s the deception? The deception is the wording. It should be: We currently can’t win a war of AGGRESSION against them, attacking them on THEIR soil. The need for the pivot to Asia. Putting NATO troops and missiles on Russia’s borders. Our never-ending wars in the Middle East. Expansion of our military footprint in Africa. Our secret ops everywhere. All of this projection of power “over there” to confront and defeat our “enemies” on their soil, in their waters, in their skies, requires bigger and better weapons, more ships and planes, trillions more dollars to float the bloat.

This sprawl of U.S. fighting forces is predicated false assumption is that WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEFEAT ANYONE, ANYWHERE, AT ANY TIME. 

Who voted for this? Did you? I sure didn’t.

This mindset, this thinking comprises the essential core of exceptionalist madness. It’s the sort of delusion and arrogance that brings every empire down. And it obvious that it’s bankrupting our country . . . socially, morally, and economically. The self-sabotaging assumption that the U.S. should rule the planet is at the root of all of our geo-political machinations, misadventures, miscalculations. It’s making us the pariah of the world community and ultimately will destroy our unacknowledged empire from within. We will collapse from the weight of our hubris and recklessness. If we don’t push our adversaries too hard and too fast, ending up with a humiliating defeat on the battlefield, then eventually the waste of so much of our national resources on the pursuit of world empire will eviscerate America from within. We already see the shocking signs disintegration, the destruction of a functioning society every time we turn on the news. Some folks only need to look out their window.

THE BIG PICTURE, THE SOBERING REALITY.

Nothing will change, this self-destructive addiction to a failing world view and foreign policy will not go away, with the incentives now in place to perpetuate war, perpetuate empire, perpetuate the MISCM complex. NOTHING WILL STOP THE MADNESS! Yes, there will be minor adjustments, tinkering, fine-tuning. But it will always be tinkering and fine-tuning an out-of-control military, putting a pretty face on a thuggish foreign policy, and disguising our blood-drenched ham-fisted attempts at world conquest as a visit by the Democracy Fairy. 

Most importantly, the policies that have resulted in endless wars, rivers of bloodshed, mountains of corpses, and nation-shattering chaos across the world are choices that the vast majority of everyday citizens NEVER APPROVED OF, NOR WOULD THEY EVER if they truly understood what was happening.

Without a genuine national conversation which at bare minimum focuses on reducing our military footprint  and ending our wanton aggression, redefining the role of the military, promoting real peace, seeking genuine partnerships on a whole host of issues that require international cooperation, reaching out (as both China and Russia both do) to create win-win situations based on mutual respect and shared values, our current trajectory — a high-risk flirtation with nuclear war and other epic disasters — will continue unabated.

How do we begin a national conversation which seriously promotes peace?  

How do we begin a national conversation which marginalizes or axes the warmongers?

How do we the people insert ourselves into making the decisions that impact our lives and future?

It starts with emptying the seats of those now in power. Then filling them with individuals who are not captured by the psychosis of American exceptionalism, not beholden to the military-industrial-congressional-media complex, committed to representing the interests and promoting the general welfare of all citizens, determined to restore the proper balance of the branches of government as required by the Constitution, and invested in promoting cooperation and peace among the nations of the world community.

For that, we need the full support of at least 150 million everyday citizens, who demand to be heard and treated with dignity and fairness. Enlisting and engaging these individuals is the central goal of the Peace Dividend Project.

Its time has come.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

War is the answer! But what was the question? | John Rachel

Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

I could have named this article "Damage Control" -- because it essentially is about that, related to the lobotomizing dilemma of "lesser evil voting".

But let me be clear at the outset.  I have already voted for Jill Stein.  I had no other choice.  I am firm in my conviction that to vote for sociopathic, narcissistic, self-serving, ruthless, guileful corporatists is an unconscionable act and a major crime against my country, irrespective of the convoluted rationalization which might attempt to justify it.

Now let me offer reasoning that goes beyond my "morally pure" posturing.

The accepted wisdom is that a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump.  This analysis purports that anyone voting for Stein would likely be a former Clinton supporter, and such a vote would subtract from Clinton's total.

Even though Hillary's elitist, warmongering, anti-democratic, demonstrably criminal world view is diametrically the opposite of Jill Stein's, and I can't imagine anyone who's moved by the Green Party's agenda for the briefest moment being fooled by Clinton's phony populism, for argument's sake I'll accept this proposition.

While I consider both Trump and Clinton to be equally unfit for office, I do not for a moment believe they would be equally ineffective.

Hillary has for good reason become the choice of the oligarchs, the MIC, the bankers, the media, the people who actually run the country.  She will serve them well.  She knows her way around the system -- she's been gaming it most of her adult life -- and has all the right connections.  Which is why even many prominent Republicans have joined the feeding frenzy and flocked to her like vultures over fresh kill.

Hillary will continue her faux-populist bloviating to keep the stinky masses in line, while her closest allies, the rich and powerful, continue to loot the Treasury, hollow out what's left of the U.S. economy, and bankrupt the middle and lower classes.

Much to the delight of the neocon-infested Department of State, Department of Defense, security agencies, MIC, and media, Hillary will "get tough" with Russia and China, press the war on Syria and the rest of the Middle East, promote and spread more chaos, death, and destruction across the globe in pursuit of military conquest, ultimately world empire.  It'll be good for business and pumping up the already inflated egos of the exceptionalists.

On the other hand, Trump will fall flat on his face.  His trademark bull-in-a-china-shop approach to making deals has no chance of success in Washington DC.  He has no support -- his own party has all but disowned him -- no connections, at least not the political ones necessary for promoting his agenda.  Yes, the politicos drank his champagne and ate the food at his extravagant bashes.  Who wouldn't?  But they don't owe him anything.  Nada! Trump's much heralded talents for making great deals would confront hostile Democrats, contemptuous Republicans -- a perhaps long-overdue bipartisanship -- closing ranks to isolate and defeat the outrageous and vulgar outsider who thought he could buy and muscle his way into political power.

 

He'll try to build his wall.  When Congress gets done with it, it'll be a 200-foot white picket fence in Calexico.  He'll attempt rapprochement with Russia.  That will be sabotaged with a false flag attack, maybe dressing some disgruntled maquiladora workers as Russian infantry men and mounting an invasion on the U.S. -- probably in Calexico -- or by John McCain threatening to fall on a grenade or blow his brains out in the Senate chambers if America doesn't immediately nuke Moscow.

Despite his self-proclaimed success in the business world, Trump simply does not know the rules of the game in Washington DC.  Unless he "fires" everyone -- declaring martial law and sending all members of the legislature to a FEMA labor camp in Montana -- he will either be the most ineffective president in history or be impeached.  Maybe both!

In a phrase, Donald Trump as president will do 'less damage'.

Anyone who has read my blogs knows that my greatest concern about a Hillary Clinton presidency is her truculent foreign policy.  A decade ago, I might have believed that she was misguided.  Now I realize -- as quite a number of others do -- that she is completely insane.  She's become drunk on power, poisoned by surrounding herself with neocons and warmongering humanitarians, possessed by visions of herself as the Warrior Queen. 

Or as many other writers have been saying . . .

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for World War III.

So . . .

Vote for Jill Stein!

We'll have our first female president, a great president at that! 

One we can all be truly proud of.  The world will breathe a sigh of relief!
At the same time, if voting for Jill Stein ends up electing Donald Trump . . .

So be it.

At least we'll come out of it alive.  And . . .

We'll have four more years to figure out how America got so screwed up.

Hillary can go back to taking bribes and looting impoverished countries.

Hard choices . . . so many helpless victims, so little time.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

Russian Roulette

 

Since everyone seems so easily distracted these days, I'm going to make this short and sweet, extremely straightforward.

People question my choice for president in the coming election.  Here's my reply.

There's a revolver on the table and six bullets.  You are going to play Russian roulette.  You have no choice in the matter.  You will play!

Voting for Hillary Clinton means they will load six bullets, filling the cylinder.

Voting for Donald Trump means they will insert five bullets, leaving one chamber open.

Voting for Jill Stein means there will be no bullets in the gun.

Why Russian roulette? 

Because Hillary is surrounding herself with warmongering neocon lunatics -- she is a warmongering neocon lunatic herself.  She'll start a major war with Russia.  Lacking any diplomatic sense or understanding of history, she has equated President Vladimir Putin with Adolph Hitler.  Since Obama already has pushed America and Russia to the brink of war, and Hillary just keeps escalating her facile anti-Russian rhetoric, we have no reason to expect otherwise.  World War III, here we come.

Trump talks of rapprochement and working with Russia.  But he's crazy and changes his mind daily.  Who knows?  He's almost as scary as Hillary.

Jill Stein wants peace and cooperation in the world.

If the U.S. ends up in a major war with Russia, it will go nuclear and that will be that.
All other issues -- immigration, Muslims, wealth inequality, jobs, equal rights, a living wage, etc. -- will be off the table because there will be no table, no room, and no building.  The city, the nation, and everyone in it will be turned into radioactive corpses and rubble.

Pick up the gun.  Choose your game.

I made my choice.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Russian Roulette

Thought Experiment

 

Let's say that you spend $20 on two fifths of whiskey, get so drunk that you have a horrible automobile accident, hitting a school bus, killing over fifty elementary students, causing serious injury to several others.  Three of the children who survived are now quadriplegics, two others have permanent brain damage, a number are disfigured because the bus caught on fire, and they couldn't get out in time.  Moreover, enraged by your clearly irresponsible behavior, several of the parents, solid members of the NRA -- thus well-equipped with assault weapons and handguns -- have vowed to avenge the death and crippling of their children.  You find yourself being hunted down and must be on the alert at all times for a potentially lethal attack.

Now let's imagine that through the magic of quantum theory and Einsteinian relativity, we could take you back to before this entire incident.  You have that same $20 in your hands.  You're given a choice.  You have full knowledge of what will happen if you buy the whiskey but you have an option:  You can walk up to a complete stranger and hand him the $20.

To make it interesting, let's say the stranger is a bum.  Let's say that from all appearances the guy is not employable, lives hand-to-mouth on what he can panhandle.  It is also easy to imagine he will spend the $20 on cigarettes and beer.

Knowing what will happen if you keep the $20 for yourself -- the whiskey, plowing into a school bus, mangling a bunch of innocent kids, creating enemies who now want to kill you -- would you hand the $20 to the bum?

Since all of the good people who visit my website are the most intelligent, rational, decent and sensible humans on the planet, I will assume to a person that all of you would opt to hand the $20 over to the bum.  Not only would you be sparing yourself a monumental amount of grief, and a stain on your conscience from which you might never recover, I have no doubt that the warm bubbles of Good Samaritanism would fill you with giddy abandon, a tactile bonanza for your good sense and generosity.  What a splendid feeling!  Why, it would be better than a kick-ass dose of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors!

So what if the guy is a bum.  A lot of people never find their groove.  That $20 will make him feel like he won the lottery.  He can spend it on whatever he likes.  It's really none of your business, right?  And it's not like you haven't made some bad choices at one time or another.  What about that time-share you bought in the Bahamas that turned out to be a shed for garden tools?  Let him buy some cigarettes, a Hustler magazine, and Wild Horse.

Alright.  Now through the magic of Blog World -- where anything can happen because the person writing the blog can make up whatever he wants and being somewhat disconnected from reality or just plain nuts is no barrier as long as he can afford the $27.95 a year for an internet domain -- let's say YOU are suddenly in charge of the entire federal budget.

Now you don't have just $20 to spend or giveaway.

You have $1.16 trillion dollars!  That's the total discretionary federal budget for 2016.

Here's the choice.  Do you continue to spend the majority of the money on defense, buying unnecessary junk, building and maintaining military bases -- the U.S. already has close to 1000 in 143 countries -- starting wars, bombing nations into complying with our agenda, killing tens of thousands of innocent people, spreading even more terrorism across the planet?  Do you inflict carnage and suffering on undeserving citizens in distant countries, blowing up not just school buses, but whole schools, hospitals, villages, whole cities?

Or do you give some aid and comfort to those who for one reason or another have fallen on hard times here in the U.S.?

Despite the putative recovery from the 2008 crash, despite America still being by far the wealthiest country in the world, despite having the largest economy in the world with a whopping GDP of $18.56 trillion, there are some 45 million Americans living below the poverty line.
There are over 500,000 homeless people in America!

Does that compute?  Over a half million human beings, many of them children, without a place to live in the richest nation in the history of the world?

Just considering the enormous amount of waste the direct result of Department of Defense incompetence and skewed priorities, it seems obvious something could be done about this.

The $1.5 trillion which is being spent on the biggest boondoggle in military history, the F-35 fighter jet, could push every single one of the 45 million poor above the poverty line for at least the next five years.

The $1.0 trillion which is being allocated to upgrade our already excessive nuclear arsenal, which currently has over 7,000 nuclear bombs -- enough to destroy the entire planet forty times over -- could put every homeless person in a $1,000,000 mansion and give them $50,000 to live on every year for the next twenty years.

Is this so outrageous?  The idea of "helicopter money" to the homeless?  Helping those folks who struggle every day to make ends meet pull even with the rest of us?

Finland is right now testing out the idea of a guaranteed minimum income for citizens who are now unemployed, a no-strings-attached, tax-free stipend of $630 per month.

Yeah, some of those homeless and poor people might not be employable.  And a few might buy beer and a Hustler magazine. 

But the truth is most of them will feed their kids and replace the bald tires on their car.

I'm not suggesting we give million-dollar mansions to every homeless person.

The point of this article is to put things in perspective.  We hear these figures bandied about all of the time.  $3 trillion for the Afghanistan war.  Another $4 trillion for the Iraq war.  Figures so mind-boggling, it's almost impossible to wrap our heads around them.

Can anyone out there say with a straight face we can't find some money in the vast wealth of the U.S. of A. so that everyone can have at bare minimum a decent life?  So that we can be proud of our country and the way it treats its citizens, especially its most vulnerable?

We can do whatever we decide to do.  That's what a democracy is, if we still have such a thing in America anymore.  It's a matter of getting over the brainwashing we have been subjected to all of our lives.  It's a matter of reconnecting with the values which allegedly are the foundations for our Christian nation.  Granted, Jesus wasn't a U.S. citizen but it seems a lot of people here claim to align with his teaching.  Does this sound familiar?

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” - Matthew 25:34-36

So, returning to our "thought experiment" . . .

Does the comparison of America's leadership to an inebriated driver plowing into a school bus full of children hold up? 

Is there any doubt?

Our foreign policy has the U.S. military careening across the planet spreading death and destruction, chaos and fear, violence and terrorism.  The whole bunch -- Obama, Biden, Carter, Clinton, Power, Rice, Nuland, Kerry, Clapper -- are drunk on power.  Yes, they are drunk on their sense of entitlement and destiny.  They are drunk on psychopathic fantasies of conquest and empire.  They are drunk on delusions of becoming deities.

And a school bus of innocent maimed and dead school kids, however horrifying and tragic, is small potatoes compared to the tens of thousands murdered, mutilated, crippled, driven from their homes, subjected to the worst possible conditions, by U.S. military aggression over the past 15 years, with the fraudulent War on Terror, pursuit of regime change, and wholesale destruction of nations which posed no threat to the U.S. or its citizens.

Yes, these lunatics are DUI alright.  They are driving America and the world to the brink of destruction, under the influence of greed and profit-seeking by the defense industries and a fanatic loyalty to the bogus pseudo-ideology of neoconservatism, a brain-eating, morally debilitating virus spread by sociopaths like Robert Kagan and Paul Wolfowitz.

So there's the choice.  Help some people who need help.  Or continue to let the crazies get behind the wheel of the mightiest military machine in history so they can perpetuate the destructive rampage that makes the U.S. the greatest threat to peace in the world today.

I titled this piece Thought Experiment.  But in reality, this is no cerebral exercise at all.
Because when you step into the voting booth on November 8th, you will have this choice or some version of it staring you in the face.  Every decision you make is another iteration of this choice.  Who you choose as your congressman, who you select as your senator, who you vote for to become president.  Their priorities become your priorities.

No one who has read even a handful of my articles will have any doubt about where I stand on the election.  I believe everyone who has regularly breathed the toxic brew of cronyism, self-serving lies, and monomaniacal propaganda, which currently permeates our nation's capital, must go.  We cannot make progress without complete and total regime change in Washington DC.  A clean sweep!  But I'm extreme that way.  I keep thinking we can have a government which truly represents the people, looks out for their best interest, one which puts the enormous wealth and resources of the U.S. to proper use, promoting the general welfare of its citizens.  Realistically, for starters that would require kicking our addiction to war and then becoming the world's greatest purveyor of peace.  Without that, we can never escape the moral and financial bankruptcy which will inevitably destroy our nation, if not the entire world.

Just remember.  There's a reason why America is one of the most feared, and increasingly hated, reviled, and targeted nations in the world.  There's a reason why the world is in the screwed-up state it's in.  And if you return the same people to office who caused this mess, then you become part of the reason too.

It doesn't have to be this way.  We don't have to have perpetual war.  We don't have to live under the thumb of the rich and powerful.  We don't have to be the victims of grotesque wealth inequality.  We don't have to sit back and watch as our country is looted and our democracy becomes a standing joke.  We don't have to march to the constant beat of war drums and drink the Kool-Aid of ultra-nationalism and exceptionalism.

Which America will you choose?

November 8th.  Voting is not a thought experiment.  It's the real deal.

By the way, as noted in the fine print on the image at the head of this article, that is an unretouched photo of contiguous rich and not-so-rich neighborhoods in Santa Fe, NM.  Bernie Sanders made wealth inequality central to his recent presidential campaign.  People responded to his message for good reason.

It's not just embarrassing.  It's unacceptable.  It's immoral.  It's unconscionable.

It's un-American!

Maybe we can't all live in mansions.  But the poor and homeless certainly deserve better.

Let's spread the wealth around a bit, eh?  We begin that with peace in the world and peace right here at home.  Peace with one another.  Peace with our own souls.

Does this make me a socialist?  A hippie?  A peace-and-love Pollyanna?




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Thought Experiment

War Games

 

I have been saying for some time that the U.S. wants a war with Russia.

Why? Because if it can cut Russia down to size, then the only country standing between America and total global domination is China. China and Russia have been cozying up lately.  Together they are a formidable threat. Take out Russia, China becomes a manageable opponent.  That's how the theory goes.

Let's cut to recent events.

Terrorist attack in Paris.  Refugee crisis escalates in Europe.  Russia is on the job offering serious opposition to ISIL.  France and other European countries are finally talking about working cooperatively with Russia to defeat ISIS.

French Prime Minister Hollande is scheduled to meet in the next few days with Putin to put their heads together and coordinate their military campaigns against the terrorists.

Turkey blows a Russian fighter jet out of the sky. Its F-16 were laying in wait. Probably the Russian fighter never crossed into Turkish air space. Even if it did, it was even by Turkey's own admission only allegedly in Turkish territory for 17 seconds.

In any case, blam! . . . down goes the plane.

IMMEDIATELY, Turkey turns to NATO -- America's proxy fighters -- to obtain unanimous support and approval for its unquestionably reprehensible deed.

Why?

Because under the terms of the NATO agreement, if any nation belonging to the alliance is attacked, it is regarded as an attack on all members and they must then fight together as a unified force against the alleged aggressor.

Are you seeing now how this works?

Russia had without any reasonable or legal justification one of its planes shot down.

Understandably, Putin has publicly announced that from this point forward, it will defend itself against any threat to its forces in Syria.  It now has a naval ship in the area with the deadly S-300 air defense system, and is sending the even more effective S-400 air defense system to the Syrian base in Latakia.

Voila!

If Russia shoots back in defense under any real or perceived threat -- like Turkish F-16s or Turkish ground defense locking Russian planes with target seeking radar -- in theory all of NATO must oppose it.

Total war!

Merry Christmas Ashton Carter, Victoria Nuland, and all of the other loathsome, wicked, hate-filled, neocon warmongers in our government.  Yeah, you get your big war, just like you wanted.

You don't think Mr. Peace Prize Prez is playing a role in this provocative and extremely dangerous scenario?  Right after the plane was shot down, Obama expressed no criticism of Turkey.  Instead, he asserted that "Turkey, like every country, has a right to defend its territory and its airspace."  Moreover, it is implausible that Turkey did this without either the knowledge or prompting of the U.S. government.  Understand that Obama has been on board with the Pax Americana imperialist program of conquest for most of his presidency. If not, how can you justify his precipitating and lying about the crisis in Ukraine.  How else can you interpret the buildup of troops right on Russia's borders, a direct provocation and chest-beating flaunting of our military power?  How else can you explain his unnecessary, counter-productive pivot to Asia, a publicly announced strategy for "containing" China?

Now the holiday season is upon us. We'll all be enjoying the cheer, the time together with family and friends, exchanging gifts, playing Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, Candyland and Boggle.

Just so you know, while you're having all sorts of innocent fun, here we have the lethal game our crazed leadership is playing.

But this particular game is not fun for the whole family.

War games will mean fewer members of your family to enjoy the holiday season next year.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

War Games

What Passes for Rationality in the Modern World

 

"If you pull your trigger, my gun will instantly fire as well."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. If you pull your trigger my gun will go off too."
"My arm's getting tired."
"Let's get this over with."

Appropriately named MAD -- Mutual Assured Destruction -- it has been in place since the 1950s and constitutes a strategy of deterrence whereby both Russia and the U.S. refrains from using their vast nuclear arsenals because both know their nations and probably the rest of the world would be destroyed. This bilateral suicide pact has been keeping the world "safe" for over half a century.

Now the U.S. in its quest for ultimate superiority and global supremacy is chipping away at it, installing ABM systems on Russia's borders, literally creating a powerful incentive for them to "get this over with".  It literally makes it a rational choice for each side to get a jump on the other and by initiating a pre-emptive strike.

I don't think Russia will hit the launch buttons. Despite all of the venomous anti-Russian propaganda and Putin-bashing going on right now in the U.S., Russia has been militarily a defensive nation for several hundred years. This is also true of China. Especially compared to the U.S. and its allies, both Russia and China have been notably unaggressive in their pursuit of power and standing in the world.

That's not to say either nation will cower before the chest-thumping of America's relentless pursuit of military superiority and world domination. Without any doubt, given what both countries have suffered historically at the hands of aggressors both in the Asia and the Europe, one can be absolutely certain they will stand their ground.

Yet, building on its almost perfect record of losing every conflict it has either started or been involved with since WWII, the U.S. is creating the conditions for confrontation with China with its "pivot to Asia", and pushing all the wrong buttons by starting the conflict in Ukraine, then prompting a number of countries on Russia's borders to station missiles and augment their military against an imagined threat of Russian aggression.

I'm not going to not pull punches here. Obama, Biden, Kerry, Clinton before him, and the entire rat pack of power-crazed imperialists are driving the America and the world toward war -- the war to end all wars, because it will end everything.


Hasn't the world had enough conflict, destruction and carnage?

Do any of these people read history?

Is there any way to explain all of the self-sabotaging maneuvering going on right now?

Let's look at this with the the clarity and objectivity you and I have by living outside the Washington DC bubble and imperious fantasy world of our neocon government.

Who in their right mind would come up with MAD, then destabilize it with policies which replace its precarious, paranoid, hair-trigger brinkmanship with more confrontation and a renewed arms race?

Aah . . . maybe I'm on to something!

Who in their right mind . . .?





[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

The Race To A Vanishing Point

 

The writing is on the wall. BIG writing! 

The U.S. has again unleashed forces it cannot control, to obtain some perceived geopolitical advantage, and give itself some edge in the grand game of chess, played on an immense, impersonal macro-cosmic scale __ which ignores individual tragedy, human suffering, destruction of peoples and cultures, wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians __ gradually edging the world toward the ultimate confrontation, the really big one, where we get to see what comes out of the other end of a nuclear confrontation.

We obviously learned nothing from our original meddling in Afghanistan, which produced Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda; our meddling in Iran, which produced the current regime we are still trying to dominate; our meddling and war with Iraq, which now has resulted in ISIS; our meddling and destruction of Libya, which now has the country in shambles and has helped spread chaos and carnage across the Middle East and northern Africa.

We just had to meddle even more, and create the current crisis in Ukraine by toppling the democratically-elected government there, then installing a fierce, racist, ultra-nationalistic "pro-Western" puppet regime which will ultimately put us eyeball-to-eyeball with Russia, a world power armed to the teeth with nuclear missiles.

David Swanson points out in an excellent article that prior to the both World War I and World War II, the public remained clueless as to the onset of war. This despite the fact that all the alarms, signals and flags were in plain sight, huge glaring signs that war was where things were inevitably heading. 

This despite concerned men and women, keen observers, highly visible pundits and scholars __ though admittedly they were in the minority and fatefully shouted down by the usual crowd of bombastic exceptionalists and grinning fools __ issuing grave and sober warnings, dire and thoughtful forecasts, based on sound and knowledgeable analysis, that the world was marching toward a disaster.

Similarly, the evidence is right before us, big pieces of a straightforward puzzle, which even the most simple-minded dolt could assemble into the frightening picture it is.

The insensitive, reckless, aggressive policies of the U.S. are precipitating World War III.

History has dramatically demonstrated that in the heat of major conflict, cooler heads never prevail. This coming war could and probably will go nuclear.

There is, of course, every reason to be concerned about putting food on the table, seeing our kids off to school, showing up for work, keeping the house and yard looking nice, making our homes comfortable for those we love.

But there's even more reason for preserving a world where there are things like food, tables, kids, schools, places to work, houses, yards, homes . . . those we love.

Am I just being a pessimist? An alarmist? A paranoid?

That's what they said about those folks who back before 1914 who were trying to get people to pay attention __ over 17,000,000 people then died in the conflagration of World War I.

That's what they said about many alarmed but certainly better informed folks in the 1920s and 1930s, who said that the Treaty of Versailles was a prescription for major disaster and could only end in a catastrophic conflict. 72,000,000 dead bodies from the greatest war in human history __ so far __ proved them right.

History repeats itself again and again . . . until it doesn't.

Until there is no more history.

Until it's all gone, and there is no longer anyone left to be annoyed by pleas for sanity and prayers for peace.

Then the planet will be governed by a vast, all-embracing quiet, when only the scurrying of cockroaches across a dusty, barren landscape offers evidence of life on Earth.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]