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Post by 3bid on Oct 24, 2014 17:08:16 GMT -5
Brrr! Why does it suddenly feel so chilly here?
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Oct 25, 2014 9:11:25 GMT -5
People moving out, People moving in, Why, because of the color of their skin, Run, run, run, but you just can't hide.
An eye for an eye, Tooth for a tooth, Vote for me and I'll set you free, Rap on, brother, rap on.
Well, the only person talking about loving thy brother is the preacher, And it seems nobody's interested in learning, but the teacher, Segregation, demonstration, integration, determination, aggravation, humiliation, Obligation to our nation.
Ball of confusion, That's what the world is today, hey.
The sale of pills is at an all time high, Young folks walk with their heads in the sky, The cities aflame in the summertime, And oh the beat goes on.
Evolution, revolution, gun control, sound of soul-shooting rockets to the moon, Kids growing up too soon, Politicians say, "More taxes will solve everything," sponsored links
The band played on.
So, round and around and around we go, Where the world's headed, nobody knows
Oh, Great Googamooga, Can't you hear me talking to you, Just a ball of confusion, That's what the world is today, hey.
Fear in the air, tension everywhere, Unemployment rising fast, The Beatles new record's a gas, And the only safe place to live, Is on an Indian reservation, The band played on.
Eve of destruction, tax deduction, City inspectors, bill collectors, mod clothes in demand, Population out of hand, suicide, too many bills, Hippies moving to the hills, People all over the world are shouting, "End the war!", And the band played on.
Great Googamooga, Can't you hear me talking to you, Just a Ball Of Confusion, -ac
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Post by 3bid on Oct 25, 2014 9:15:55 GMT -5
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Post by truebrit on Oct 25, 2014 12:39:28 GMT -5
Manny, you me a 6 month suspension for replying to an idiot him in CAPS. and you can only say STFU when he besmerks and mocks when a solider dies in the line of duty!!
I'm sorry I do not see the justice of this. I pray for every service person who is out there serving their country and I pray that they ALL come to their wives, family and children.
Instead of trying to turn it into the "marks of crassly crafted propaganda, blatant symbolism etc. right in the capital of Canada, Ottowa.) Ant that the solider in question "the guy is like selected from central casting photogenic, oh poor guy, someone shot him and threw their own life away just to make a big bold statement about how evil people are going to gun down innocent 24 yr. olds at war monuments just to piss everyone off...blah blah blah...and ooooh....the outrage".
If this doe's not make vets blood boil, and he returns then I will certainly STFU.
Truebrit
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Post by 3bid on Oct 26, 2014 2:51:57 GMT -5
Manny, you me a 6 month suspension for replying to an idiot him in CAPS. and you can only say STFU when he besmerks and mocks when a solider dies in the line of duty!! I'm sorry I do not see the justice of this. I pray for every service person who is out there serving their country and I pray that they ALL come to their wives, family and children. Instead of trying to turn it into the "marks of crassly crafted propaganda, blatant symbolism etc. right in the capital of Canada, Ottowa.) Ant that the solider in question "the guy is like selected from central casting photogenic, oh poor guy, someone shot him and threw their own life away just to make a big bold statement about how evil people are going to gun down innocent 24 yr. olds at war monuments just to piss everyone off...blah blah blah...and ooooh....the outrage". If this doe's not make vets blood boil, and he returns then I will certainly STFU. Truebrit I agree that thunkerdrone's remarks were in poor taste. He certainly could have made his assertions in a non-inflammatory and less self-defeating way. An open-minded, critical look into possibilities should stimulate thought and encourage others to join in. Allowing a consensus to move closer to the deeper truth in a logical and respectful way. Perhaps thunkerdrone really doesn't intend for this subject to go anywhere, and so he poisoned it. Resulting in distractions of emotional reactions from others, due to perceived disrespect for the dead. A hijack that obscures the underlying message and chills the spirit of inquiry.
Apparently, STFU can bring a dead halt to 'nonsense' and allow productive discourse to continue. If for whatever reason further action is necessary, a case could be made in a thread devoted to such issues. A public thread; not a private thread for staff only. Perhaps a thread titled: Supreme Judge Manny, with popular and holy members acting as attorneys, prosecutors, ect. Including jury trials. I suppose it can be said that the system here already works like that, though on a more abstract and magical basis. Just my thoughts and feelings on how to handle disturbing situations fairly and at a distance from the original thread and topic.
Imagine the possibilities once virtual reality becomes commonplace to the likes of those who populate forums such as ours. The limitations of fixed avatars and emoticons will be a simple thing of the past. Much like as when the era of 'silent' pictures advanced into 'talkies' and color replaced traditional monochrome. Of course I'd prefer all of that to occur after closure. The moment of truth where Al is satisfied and so are we.
-3bid
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Post by Brigantine on Oct 26, 2014 14:56:47 GMT -5
Perhaps some day soon, the people will come to recognize that the left / right paradigm is an artificial construct, specifically designed by the powers that be to keep us squabbling amongst ourselves while they rape and pillage with impunity.
If you doubt this, all you have to do is look at the last five or six presidents and their actions. Each one, regardless of their "side of the aisle" has brought us inexorably closer to a totalitarian government. Obama, the purported "constitutional scholar" gave me some hope for about fifteen minutes. Until he filled his cabinet with bankers. And then, instead of repealing the totalitarian map, the unconstitutional "Patriot Act," he proceeded to extend and enhance it.
Until the people recognize this trend en masse and move to stop it, that is where we are headed.
Unfortunately, I doubt America can be pulled away from its tailgating, ball games and reality shows long enough to figure out they are chattel. Quite frankly, it saddens me to no end, to be awake in a sleeping world.
~Brigantine
And still, nearly eight years later, there are people even on these boards who rail against the liberals or the conservatives. As if it matters that they chose one side of the aisle or another.
Sigh.
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Post by 3bid on Nov 4, 2014 19:40:59 GMT -5
The “Double Government” Secret Gets Out
By Russ Baker on Nov 3, 2014
You know something is going on when the cautious Boston Globe publishes not one, but two, pieces dealing with the “double government.”
This cryptic phrase encapsulates a serious claim about the American body politic: That a permanent and largely unaccountable bureaucracy keeps on doing what it wants to do, no matter who the voters elect to the White House.
Both of the Globe articles refer to “National Security and Double Government,” a book by Michael J. Glennon, professor of international law at Tufts University. From the descriptions of its contents (we haven’t read the book yet, but we will—and perhaps excerpt), the author is talking, with due academic caution, about an out-of-control security/military apparatus.
The fact that the Globe thinks this book is important enough to warrant not one but two analytical pieces is significant, because Boston was the scene of the mysterious Boston Marathon Bombing.
In the aftermath of that tragedy, the national security apparatus and its allies in the media, academia and corporate America (including, significantly, the Globe itself) rushed to discourage us from looking deeper at what happened—while at the same time the nat-sec folks used the event to further expand their influence at the expense of civil liberties.
The Secret Government
One of the Globe’s pieces was a highly favorable review of Dr. Glennon’s book by former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards. Edwards, a co-founder of the staunchly conservative Heritage Foundation, has over the years become more and more of a maverick—and more outspokenly alarmed by the path America has taken.
The other piece, which appeared in the Globe the same day,was a Q&A with Glennon. The astonishing headline was:
Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change. The sub-headline wasn’t much tamer:
The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon. The genesis of the book was a question that confounded Glennon about President Obama: How did a man who won election pledging to change the national security policies of his predecessor effect so little of that? Here’s what Edwards wrote in his review:
The answer Glennon places before us is not reassuring: “a bifurcated system — a structure of double government—in which even the President now exercises little substantive control over the overall direction of U.S. national security policy.” The result, he writes, is a system of dual institutions that have evolved “toward greater centralization, less accountability, and emergent autocracy.” The paradox, Glennon says, is that this barely accountable government machinery actually arose from President Harry S. Truman’s attempts to reduce the military’s growing and unchecked power. The unforeseen outcome was the growth of an unaccountable civilian power center.
No Secret Conspiracy (Or Theory)
Glennon’s was hardly the first well-reviewed book to deal with this topic. In 2009 Janine Wedel, an anthropology professor at George Mason University, published Shadow Elite, which received lavish praise from Arianna Huffington and the endorsement of her “book club,” despite the fact that the Huffington Post itself has a strong aversion to publishing “conspiracy” stories.
Perhaps Wedel avoided being tarred with the hackneyed “conspiracy theorist” because she argues that the shadowy networks she describes are not necessarily criminal or in cahoots with multinational corporations, but merely the outgrowth of powerful and self-replenishing (if often incompetent) elites.
Glennon will likely avoid the damaging label as well, with extensive research and more than 800 footnotes in his book to back up his thesis. The author “is hardly the sort to engage in such fantasies,” Edwards wrote:
This is no secret conspiracy nor a plot to deprive Americans of their civil liberties. It is the unintended consequence of a thoughtful attempt to head off the very threats that those attempts have inadvertently created. But if Glennon’s book is enlightening it is also scary. And it’s not fiction. Glennon turns to a familiar explanation—that every nation gets the government it deserves—to bolster his argument as to why the double government has been able to flourish:
“The ultimate problem is the pervasive political ignorance on the part of the American people. And indifference to the threat that is emerging from these concealed institutions,” he told the Globe. ***
Of course, the notion that the American political process and a largely compliant and docile media keep focusing attention on the wrong people and institutions is one of WhoWhatWhy’s central themes. This heretical insight is typically pooh-poohed in the corporate media and even in the so-called alternative media. Any attempt to raise the lid on what’s been called Deep Politics is routinely disparaged and condemned as the droolings of the deranged.
Well, everyone has his or her own comfort level with uncomfortable material. Some may need a credentialed professor or two to start the conversation, and a major newspaper to weigh in favorably, before they dare open their minds.
We won’t complain. We’re just glad to know that we were sane all along.
Next (though we aren’t holding our breath for this) we hope to see the Boston Globe publish an in-depth investigation of that sub rosa “Double Government” and its peculiar handling of the Boston Marathon Bombing—which to our eyes has, at best, the hallmarks of a security-fail cover-up. And an incident that considerably expanded the rationale for, and power of, the same NatSec establishment that has belatedly so alarmed the Globe. .......................
comments:
Oddly, all kinds of people in power have hinted at this. Some have blatantly said so - Teddy Roosevelt for one: ("Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people").
Lincoln mentioned the banks, and Eisenhower mentioned the military-industrial complex (he actually called it the military-industrial-congressional complex and was forced to drop the "congressional" part). Obama promised change from his presidency and now says change must come from the bottom up; an obvious attitude change. Every hopeful president who wants to change the way things are done walks into the White House to find out that he is not the one in power, but a figurehead - and the appointed target of enemies who hate the policies he is supposedly responsible for; the official "fall guy" who will take the bullet if there is one. Heaven forbid that the REAL power behind the throne be so threatened.
The problem with Americans is that they just aren't listening very closely. .....
Thank You Russ, We should all have realistic worldly expectations of the system which rules us, and it is much more basic and streamlined than the workings we see on TV. This is not new in history. Huge working groups can't get things done. Smaller groups of powerful people, working unseen and unfettered, can get a lot done, can't they? ..... Those of us who see this should prepare for upcoming human existential emergencies, which we can see across our planet. We are also subject to these changes. They make us more cooperative.
whowhatwhy.com/2014/11/03/the-double-government-secret-gets-out/
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