"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense..."
- President Eisenhower; April 16, 1953
"I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes." -- Douglas MacArthur
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire
Well............................it's better than a Palin rally, I suppose. Kind of a white crowd, No people of color. Maybe because people of color in America know first-hand that injustice and insanity are bedfellows and that jokes don't permanently restore anything, any more than does a beer or a joint. I don't think any of these people mean any harm, they simply came out to see a live comedy show in DC and I can't help but feel that there is hope for us in that crowd, even if not on-stage. The first step toward sanity is accepting reality and truth and then dealing with it. I watched an hour of this and saw neither. I'm sure the sound bites will tell the story of how glad everyone was that they could come together for a 'sane' purpose. But I'm equally sure that many who were there know in their hearts that the wars are wrong and that greed has taken over the whole world and they are probably to intimidated to speak their heart. That's where we come in.
This is just a rally. We're a movement. And a much bigger one at that.
lots of them already know the truth and news has spread far and wide in their communities. As one of my friends has said "everyone knows bush knocked down the towers" . He don't need the details it's just common knowledge in his neighborhood.
Stewart is just using his artform to try to make a difference and keeping it on the lightside. He's no fool and knows mass appeal can be deemed dangerous, aka John Lennon's cia files. I know Stewart fans who know enough about 911truth but think it's unrealistic to think it can go anywhere. When I say something like "well what else is there to do?" Some say yeah your right, but more just want to live in the matrix and have some fun before they die. And who am I to disagree?
say the same thing. And UR right, it's pretty common knowledge with them. I feel really good and proud when people like Jon Gold have the initial reaction to stuff like this is to remind us of people like MLK.
Evidently Stewart believes that the government will act in good faith for the benefit of the public if only we can get past the extremism on both sides of the aisle. So he isn't trying to cover up or make light of corruption.
IMO he doesn't want to admit that the extremism (i.e. the tea party) is intentionally stirred up to distract from the rampant corruption. Sure it would be nice to believe everyone in D.C. wants what is best for the country but it simply isn't true.
IMO Stewart isn't taking part in a designed deception. He truly appears to believe that extremism is a key factor in the dysfunction of the political system.
I think most people on 9/11 blogger realize that corruption and propaganda are more important factors.
The wars are really all about oil and the selfish interests of a few who want to hold onto what they have and are apparently willing to do anything to do so. This includes severely corrupting the political process, creating extremist distractions, constant propaganda to disguise what is actually going on, and even the staging of a massive murderous hoax like the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to deceptively gain support for illegal invasions and occupations of sovereign countries for control of and access to oil resources. The military is considered a tool to be used for their purposes by these people and that is why the PNAC document talked of a transformation of the military.
If they really want to restore sanity, Stewart and Colbert should be loudly asking why Dick Cheney held secret national energy policy meetings and why we aren't having a much more serious debate on this issue. They should also be asking why Wall Street and Phil Gramm were able to have Glass-Steagall removed from federal law and create an Enron loophole to enable investment banks to mess around with mortgages and allow oil futures speculation. In addition to their completely non-value added meddling with mortgage securities, Goldman Sachs and their ilk have also been able to play non-value added games with the oil market since 2000. If Phil Gramm was legitimately investigated he would be in jail. See this blogger's take on the person he calls typhoid Phil http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add... and Gramm's attempt to deflect criticism of his behavior http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/phil-gramms-extreme-makeover. Let us also not forget Gramm's and his wife's connection to Enron and the 2001 Enron California energy manipulation conspiracy case files that were in the SEC office in WTC 7 on Sept. 11, 2001. There almost had to be political fingerprints on that case, as it would be impossible to mess around with a large state's energy situation without political influence. What a coincidence then that those case files went down with the building and the case was never resurrected. It is ludricous to say that this doesn't show motive for the covert demolition of WTC 7 and that a paper shredder could have been used instead.
We should be doing massive buildouts of Alternative and Renewable Energies such as algae oil, wind, and solar. Had the 2 trillion dollars, spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the last 8 years, been used for these purposes instead, I would bet we would be nearly energy independent by now. Brazil has been since 2006. Energy market money would also be spread among a lot more people. It isn't all hopeless though. The U.S. military has recently deemed a move to Alternative Energies to be a paramount objective and this will eventually seep into the public at large http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013266233_apusalgaefu....
I guess I don't see the basis for what you are saying here.
From my perspective all of the deceptive actions and behaviors of the last decade, by people involved in illegally getting us to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, have been on gaining access to the remaining large naturally occurring oil deposits in the world.
My counter to that is that the reason they were deceptive is that we can actually learn to farm and harvest energy in a renewable way, like we did with food thousands of years ago, and don't need to be causing severe chaos and death and destruction in these countries for this oil or their access to it.
There is nothing ideological about the above, as it is fact based.
The key to disrupting Russia and China has always been to mess with central Asia and the key to central Asia is Afghanistan.
While I think it is always important to keep in mind that the U.S. military is the single largest consumer of petroleum products on the planet, oil alone is not why the elites are pursuing their objectives.
Oil is but one tool of power and control.
Rare earth minerals also play into this deadly calculus, as does fresh water and viable agricultural land.
The Chinese are also establishing security ties with many countries, including Russia (see the SCO).
My bottom line is that the elites are led by true sociopaths and sociopaths are the ultimate control freaks, thus they work to put themselves in positions of power and control and feel they have to control everything they can. (Now there's a fun thought for Halloween, eh?).
The power of love is much greater than the power of fear, brothers and sisters, all we have to do is love and educate each other and love will prevail when we no longer collectively give OUR POWER to the destructive forces around us.
The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.
While there is no doubt that Afghanistan has now been seen to be mineral rich, with the cache including Lithium, I don't know of a shortage of these minerals from other sources. So I seriously doubt that control of certain rare earth minerals played any part in the motivations for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
I guess I don't understand the need to dabble in highly speculative ways about motivations, when the obvious stares anyone who really looks at it in the face that it was primarily control of Iraqi oil and access to Caspian area oil and gas resources.
The petroleum crude shortage reality is the reason the U.S. military is going to liquid fuels refined from alternative and renewable sources such as Algae.
Any grand chessboard theory with money and bases being involved in some way for nebulous motives is highly speculative and without a good basis. The only part of it that rings true is the oil issue, which of course would be the reason for bases.
I don't like to get into gross speculation and prefer to call it what it simply is in reality, a deception to control the diminishing supplies of naturally occurring petroleum, which can be easily extracted and sold for a very high profit.
The oil issue is real and provides real motives which could be used in a court. You would have a hard time saying something about a grand chessboard there.
To talk about oil is not simply to talk about oil, but about the things oil makes possible. For U.S. elites, it is a means to continued power and hegemony. All the finest planes, tanks, and naval vessels that you can think of--themselves means of 'projecting power' abroad--won't amount to anything if you don't have the fuel to run them.
Also remember that besides planning to grab Iraq's oil, Cheney was also a member of PNAC which, in the passage of 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' that spoke of the importance of a 'new Pearl Harbor,' was referring to the goal of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs;' and by THAT they primarily meant the weaponization of space and control of cyberspace. Besides the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, there are interests in Washington that are still pursuing these objectives as well.
For years oil has been kept in the hands of the few, a tradition started by J.D. Rockefeller with his monopolizing of the business through his backroom dealings with the railroads.
The major oil companies of the world were called the seven sisters for a long time, and there were many conspiracies attributed to them, which can all be argued were committed to maintain power.
The military is essentially a pawn of whoever is in power and unfortunately it seems a relatively small cliche has been able to maintain that power through hook and crook and for the last fifty years or so it has been largely about oil where international issues were concerned. They need a strong military to maintain their oil empire. That is why the PNAC document talked about reinvigorating or transforming the military. They knew what they were going to have it do.
I am hoping that a lot more people are involved with Alternative Energy production and distribution, so this power hold by the few can be broken. There has been a lot of blockage of Alternative Energy programs by certain power brokers in the U.S. government, and I have seen the former CEO of Shell say it was going to take fifty years to bring on line. That is about the amount of time the known natural reserves will last. However, it seems there has been a recent move made by U.S. military officers to push for use of algae oil in the very near term. It seems those who would be abused by the oil barons to do their bidding (the military) could eventually change the game from the inside.
I think this is highly speculative and without a basis also. It would not hold up in court without some evidence.
As for the oil issue, Cheney's secret National Energy Policy meetings with executives from the oil industry, and the deception to get us into Iraq, are evidence for people involved in oil to have been the primary perpetrators. I won't say they didn't involve others who may have had other motivations, to help with the operation and its cover-up, but these would have been secondary and I think far and few between.
One bit of speculation I will indulge in is that it is possible that these guys may have actually deluded themselves that they were doing the right thing in a utilitarian way and not fully appreciated at the time that alternative energies were more than capable of supplying our energy needs. Murdering nearly 3,000 people on your home soil in a fraud and then causing the nation to get into two illicit wars where tens of thousands would be killed in rampant death and destruction is a large pill to swallow and it is hard to imagine it was taken lightly even by people like Dick Cheney. Don't forget it appears there was an effort to minimize casualties by hitting the Pentagon in a place that was just refurbished for blast protection and where there was a limited number of people stationed and that the first hit on the towers was relatively high and before most people got to work. The second hit on the towers was also near the corner which left stairwells open in the core for those above the hit to escape down.
project for a new american century seems a pretty clear plan to me. We coulda/shouda have pursued alternative energy since the time of Carter, we had a great electric car in 94, the oil lobby has had it's way for some time now and they scored big in Iraq. Don't forget the oil lobby includes foreign suppliers who want to sell every drop they can find. The never ending war on terror is the new never ending battlefield for the war machine. The privatization boys also intended to draw the defense budget right into private corps while at the same time allowing greater secrecy in military matters including the reduction of reported casualities and troop levels as by products. In addition the bush doctrine now establishes the US intention to invade as it sees fit. The patriot act and COG had been on the drawing board for some time and became operational. Overall I am sure that it all is rationalized as in the best interest of the empire well above the common man's need to know.
At the same time, Stewart’s “politics of the golden mean” is a facile one, devoid of any understanding of the social forces driving politics, including the significant corporate financing behind the promotion of an extreme right-wing movement in the United States. Stewart expresses the attitude of the relatively comfortable middle-class supporters of the Democratic Party who are constantly trying to reach some sort of accommodation with the right.
The basic sentiment that Stewart sought to cultivate was one of complacency. The rally was called in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in generations, but there was absolutely no mention—either before or during the event—of the desperate situation facing millions of people. There was nothing about the ongoing wars carried out by both political parties that have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. There was no hint of the unprecedented attack on democratic rights in the United States.
According to Stewart’s analysis, the immense divisions that are emerging in American society are little more than a media creation. The outlook is in fact preposterous.
Everybody should read that link. That commentary pretty much nails it, especially with regard to the warped conceptions Americans have of the political spectrum. It should be remembered that in America, there is no left-right paradigm, there is only a right-extreme right paradigm masquerading as a left-right paradigm.
The way you fabricate this misconception is to have utterly insane people clamoring that moderates or even right-of-center politicians are 'communists', 'socialists' and 'marxists'. Essentially anybody who is not an insane extreme rightist. It's very important to understand that the underlying goal of this rhetoric is to shift the entire frame of reference to the right. To be clear: in the eyes of Europeans, Obama is a right winger. However, this is going to change; because we are being Americanized in terms of culture, media and politics.
I see more and more rhetoric in my country about "socialists", "marxists" and "communists". I see more and more Limbaugh-like pundits and senseless right-wing extremist nihilism. I see newspapers tabloid-ifying. Increasing popularity of Climate Change denial. Racist headlines and texts in newspapers that were never respectable anyway, but seek to explore new levels of intellectual and moral bankruptcy. After all, in a shifting frame of reference to the extreme right and the cultivation of stoic indifference and complacency, it takes effort to sensitize people. Louder. More obnoxious. More provocative. More lies that inflame and rhetoric that incites. People that don't have a cent to spare and have to turn every dime find themselves disapproving of 'socialism'. Why?
The media.
Remember when Bill O'Reilly was bad? Where is he now? He's a sweetheart compared to Glenn Beck. Did Bill O'Reilly become mild in some way? No. Your frame of reference was cunningly shifted to the right. You are tempted to embrace people as sane who were never sane in the first place. What state is the world in if the only meaningful gathering of people for any cause (what cause?) can be facilitated by a comedian? Don't just blame the leadership: blame the people who don't have the ambition for anything but rallying for the consumption of entertainment.
The tea party movement can only be seen as bewitched by a hate media-induced hypnosis. A manufactured mass psychosis from the top down, directly and intently targeting useful idiots who've convinced themselves they are somehow not mouthpieces of the jingoist financial and military elite, but freedom fighters. This scheme has defanged the protest movement on the left completely, because they have been robbed the opportunity to win hearts and minds across the political spectrum.
A spectrum which has already been deliberately saturated by notions of 'activism' concocted by astroturfers. Think of a citizens mind as a tea cup. You can't fill up a cup that is already filled. You can actually close minds by filling them up with incendiary lies, before any sane commentator gets there first. A whole grassroots counterrevolutionary movement was constructed by the Koch brothers and their affiliates. There is indeed a horrifying fascist octopus, spreading its tentacles and slowly strangling the American psyche.
The avenues of protest for the citizenry have been neutralized by a scorched earth tactic.
There is a side-effect: while we should be scrutinizing the left and the moderates for their catastrophic failures to guard and protect democracy and liberty; we are instead utterly consumed with fending off the brainwashed, racist, corporatist foot soldiers on the extreme right.
This is a win-win situation for our opponents. There is little we can do. It is my belief the modern Tea Party movement in its earliest incarnation in 2006, represented a bridge of a political divide between left and right. The Tea Party movement was subsequently and accordingly identified as a threat by the right-wing nationalist establishment, then professionally subverted into a partisan clobbering device.
The United States and their allies are now in great peril.
Der Spiegel chimes in, chronicling America's imperial decline:
Jon Stewart's response to 'what about building 7' was "Al Qaeda Did It?"
These 15 points should be presented to Stewart, or any 'reporter' or 'journalist' who takes an interest in the investigation, or makes public pronouncements about it.
He...
Wouldn't be wanted at today's rally...
Think about THAT.
Awesome.
Martin Luther King (1967) - Proud to be maladjusted!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXEIYpnlxbw
Those were
twenty well spent minutes.
Timeless words
that could be spoken today by replacing Viet Nam with Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thank you for posting Jon and Orangutan.
Thanks Jon
Great post.. good words indeed..
These quotes seemed apropo; thought I'd share..
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense..."
- President Eisenhower; April 16, 1953
"I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes." -- Douglas MacArthur
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire
thanks again Jon..
peace everyone..
dtg
Our country is on the brink of collapse,
choking on corruption, and they are singing, dancing and telling jokes.
What's wrong with this picture?
Was there a live sound track while Rome burned?
Let's hear it for the endless capacity of the corporate and foundation media to distract the masses.
yawn
"We can't do anything anyway, so why not laugh about our impotence.
This message sponsored by Prozac, 'We take the edge off of life and make living in a corrupt police state seem acceptable'. "
This rally smells like desperation to me (insert appropriate song here).
Let's keep our eyes on the prize, brothers and sisters, we are the leaders we have been waiting for.
The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.
no kidding
Well............................it's better than a Palin rally, I suppose. Kind of a white crowd, No people of color. Maybe because people of color in America know first-hand that injustice and insanity are bedfellows and that jokes don't permanently restore anything, any more than does a beer or a joint. I don't think any of these people mean any harm, they simply came out to see a live comedy show in DC and I can't help but feel that there is hope for us in that crowd, even if not on-stage. The first step toward sanity is accepting reality and truth and then dealing with it. I watched an hour of this and saw neither. I'm sure the sound bites will tell the story of how glad everyone was that they could come together for a 'sane' purpose. But I'm equally sure that many who were there know in their hearts that the wars are wrong and that greed has taken over the whole world and they are probably to intimidated to speak their heart. That's where we come in.
This is just a rally. We're a movement. And a much bigger one at that.
In my experience interacting with people of color
lots of them already know the truth and news has spread far and wide in their communities. As one of my friends has said "everyone knows bush knocked down the towers" . He don't need the details it's just common knowledge in his neighborhood.
Stewart is just using his artform to try to make a difference and keeping it on the lightside. He's no fool and knows mass appeal can be deemed dangerous, aka John Lennon's cia files. I know Stewart fans who know enough about 911truth but think it's unrealistic to think it can go anywhere. When I say something like "well what else is there to do?" Some say yeah your right, but more just want to live in the matrix and have some fun before they die. And who am I to disagree?
Interesting.
Bush Knocked Down the Towers
my black friends
say the same thing. And UR right, it's pretty common knowledge with them. I feel really good and proud when people like Jon Gold have the initial reaction to stuff like this is to remind us of people like MLK.
This rally is coming from a different vantage point
Evidently Stewart believes that the government will act in good faith for the benefit of the public if only we can get past the extremism on both sides of the aisle. So he isn't trying to cover up or make light of corruption.
IMO he doesn't want to admit that the extremism (i.e. the tea party) is intentionally stirred up to distract from the rampant corruption. Sure it would be nice to believe everyone in D.C. wants what is best for the country but it simply isn't true.
In Other Words...
Jon Stewart is in place to do what Obama was put in place to do. False hope, continued deception, smoke screen.
I can't watch!
Perhaps that is the result of the rally
IMO Stewart isn't taking part in a designed deception. He truly appears to believe that extremism is a key factor in the dysfunction of the political system.
I think most people on 9/11 blogger realize that corruption and propaganda are more important factors.
The extremism and propaganda are covers for selfish interests
The wars are really all about oil and the selfish interests of a few who want to hold onto what they have and are apparently willing to do anything to do so. This includes severely corrupting the political process, creating extremist distractions, constant propaganda to disguise what is actually going on, and even the staging of a massive murderous hoax like the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to deceptively gain support for illegal invasions and occupations of sovereign countries for control of and access to oil resources. The military is considered a tool to be used for their purposes by these people and that is why the PNAC document talked of a transformation of the military.
If they really want to restore sanity, Stewart and Colbert should be loudly asking why Dick Cheney held secret national energy policy meetings and why we aren't having a much more serious debate on this issue. They should also be asking why Wall Street and Phil Gramm were able to have Glass-Steagall removed from federal law and create an Enron loophole to enable investment banks to mess around with mortgages and allow oil futures speculation. In addition to their completely non-value added meddling with mortgage securities, Goldman Sachs and their ilk have also been able to play non-value added games with the oil market since 2000. If Phil Gramm was legitimately investigated he would be in jail. See this blogger's take on the person he calls typhoid Phil http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add... and Gramm's attempt to deflect criticism of his behavior http://crooksandliars.com/jon-perr/phil-gramms-extreme-makeover. Let us also not forget Gramm's and his wife's connection to Enron and the 2001 Enron California energy manipulation conspiracy case files that were in the SEC office in WTC 7 on Sept. 11, 2001. There almost had to be political fingerprints on that case, as it would be impossible to mess around with a large state's energy situation without political influence. What a coincidence then that those case files went down with the building and the case was never resurrected. It is ludricous to say that this doesn't show motive for the covert demolition of WTC 7 and that a paper shredder could have been used instead.
We should be doing massive buildouts of Alternative and Renewable Energies such as algae oil, wind, and solar. Had the 2 trillion dollars, spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the last 8 years, been used for these purposes instead, I would bet we would be nearly energy independent by now. Brazil has been since 2006. Energy market money would also be spread among a lot more people. It isn't all hopeless though. The U.S. military has recently deemed a move to Alternative Energies to be a paramount objective and this will eventually seep into the public at large http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013266233_apusalgaefu....
I have to wonder how much Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert actually understand about this. I think a serious conversation with someone like Robert Redford would ensure they do and would help to actually restore sanity. Here you can read some of what Robert Redford is willing to say publicly about it http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-redford/the-fix-dirty-energys-und_b... and watch his short video about it at the bottom of the article or here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjlbmYx4HdQ&feature=player_embedded
Don't think
oil is the main focus - expansion of territory is IMO - ideology - arrrgghhhhhhh! ... ... ...
Can you support your assertion?
I guess I don't see the basis for what you are saying here.
From my perspective all of the deceptive actions and behaviors of the last decade, by people involved in illegally getting us to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, have been on gaining access to the remaining large naturally occurring oil deposits in the world.
My counter to that is that the reason they were deceptive is that we can actually learn to farm and harvest energy in a renewable way, like we did with food thousands of years ago, and don't need to be causing severe chaos and death and destruction in these countries for this oil or their access to it.
There is nothing ideological about the above, as it is fact based.
Don't forget the grand chessboard
as we need to surround potential rivals. China is establishing monetary ties while the US is establishing bases of operation.
Don't forget Russia, please
The key to disrupting Russia and China has always been to mess with central Asia and the key to central Asia is Afghanistan.
While I think it is always important to keep in mind that the U.S. military is the single largest consumer of petroleum products on the planet, oil alone is not why the elites are pursuing their objectives.
Oil is but one tool of power and control.
Rare earth minerals also play into this deadly calculus, as does fresh water and viable agricultural land.
The Chinese are also establishing security ties with many countries, including Russia (see the SCO).
My bottom line is that the elites are led by true sociopaths and sociopaths are the ultimate control freaks, thus they work to put themselves in positions of power and control and feel they have to control everything they can. (Now there's a fun thought for Halloween, eh?).
The power of love is much greater than the power of fear, brothers and sisters, all we have to do is love and educate each other and love will prevail when we no longer collectively give OUR POWER to the destructive forces around us.
The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.
What rare earth minerals that we couldn't get elsewhere?
While there is no doubt that Afghanistan has now been seen to be mineral rich, with the cache including Lithium, I don't know of a shortage of these minerals from other sources. So I seriously doubt that control of certain rare earth minerals played any part in the motivations for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
I guess I don't understand the need to dabble in highly speculative ways about motivations, when the obvious stares anyone who really looks at it in the face that it was primarily control of Iraqi oil and access to Caspian area oil and gas resources.
The petroleum crude shortage reality is the reason the U.S. military is going to liquid fuels refined from alternative and renewable sources such as Algae.
That is speculative
Any grand chessboard theory with money and bases being involved in some way for nebulous motives is highly speculative and without a good basis. The only part of it that rings true is the oil issue, which of course would be the reason for bases.
I don't like to get into gross speculation and prefer to call it what it simply is in reality, a deception to control the diminishing supplies of naturally occurring petroleum, which can be easily extracted and sold for a very high profit.
The oil issue is real and provides real motives which could be used in a court. You would have a hard time saying something about a grand chessboard there.
Oil means power
To talk about oil is not simply to talk about oil, but about the things oil makes possible. For U.S. elites, it is a means to continued power and hegemony. All the finest planes, tanks, and naval vessels that you can think of--themselves means of 'projecting power' abroad--won't amount to anything if you don't have the fuel to run them.
Also remember that besides planning to grab Iraq's oil, Cheney was also a member of PNAC which, in the passage of 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' that spoke of the importance of a 'new Pearl Harbor,' was referring to the goal of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs;' and by THAT they primarily meant the weaponization of space and control of cyberspace. Besides the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations, there are interests in Washington that are still pursuing these objectives as well.
Alternative Energy could be a key to dispersing this power
For years oil has been kept in the hands of the few, a tradition started by J.D. Rockefeller with his monopolizing of the business through his backroom dealings with the railroads.
The major oil companies of the world were called the seven sisters for a long time, and there were many conspiracies attributed to them, which can all be argued were committed to maintain power.
The military is essentially a pawn of whoever is in power and unfortunately it seems a relatively small cliche has been able to maintain that power through hook and crook and for the last fifty years or so it has been largely about oil where international issues were concerned. They need a strong military to maintain their oil empire. That is why the PNAC document talked about reinvigorating or transforming the military. They knew what they were going to have it do.
I am hoping that a lot more people are involved with Alternative Energy production and distribution, so this power hold by the few can be broken. There has been a lot of blockage of Alternative Energy programs by certain power brokers in the U.S. government, and I have seen the former CEO of Shell say it was going to take fifty years to bring on line. That is about the amount of time the known natural reserves will last. However, it seems there has been a recent move made by U.S. military officers to push for use of algae oil in the very near term. It seems those who would be abused by the oil barons to do their bidding (the military) could eventually change the game from the inside.
Also HUGE Profits for those Invested in ARMS...
and all things related to the Military Industrial Complex.
Many of the warmongers undoubtedly are not really thinking long term.
GREED NOW! is the motivator.
So who do you think was involved in the events of Sept. 11, 2001
from the so-called Military Industrial complex?
I think this is highly speculative and without a basis also. It would not hold up in court without some evidence.
As for the oil issue, Cheney's secret National Energy Policy meetings with executives from the oil industry, and the deception to get us into Iraq, are evidence for people involved in oil to have been the primary perpetrators. I won't say they didn't involve others who may have had other motivations, to help with the operation and its cover-up, but these would have been secondary and I think far and few between.
One bit of speculation I will indulge in is that it is possible that these guys may have actually deluded themselves that they were doing the right thing in a utilitarian way and not fully appreciated at the time that alternative energies were more than capable of supplying our energy needs. Murdering nearly 3,000 people on your home soil in a fraud and then causing the nation to get into two illicit wars where tens of thousands would be killed in rampant death and destruction is a large pill to swallow and it is hard to imagine it was taken lightly even by people like Dick Cheney. Don't forget it appears there was an effort to minimize casualties by hitting the Pentagon in a place that was just refurbished for blast protection and where there was a limited number of people stationed and that the first hit on the towers was relatively high and before most people got to work. The second hit on the towers was also near the corner which left stairwells open in the core for those above the hit to escape down.
War-Profiteers
I didn't say the MIC was involved in the attacks. My comment was about why we are at war.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/151-congressmen-profit-from-war/3...
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Ap0dA9Vclj7eMOxZJbSpxa2mN3wV?p=war+p...
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/paul65.html
Thanks for clarifying
However, in reading the article at the link you provided it appears these guys are cashing in after the fact.
While there is a possibility that this had something to do with the motivations for 911 I think it would still be a secondary motive at best.
Yes the chessboard always included Russia. The
project for a new american century seems a pretty clear plan to me. We coulda/shouda have pursued alternative energy since the time of Carter, we had a great electric car in 94, the oil lobby has had it's way for some time now and they scored big in Iraq. Don't forget the oil lobby includes foreign suppliers who want to sell every drop they can find. The never ending war on terror is the new never ending battlefield for the war machine. The privatization boys also intended to draw the defense budget right into private corps while at the same time allowing greater secrecy in military matters including the reduction of reported casualities and troop levels as by products. In addition the bush doctrine now establishes the US intention to invade as it sees fit. The patriot act and COG had been on the drawing board for some time and became operational. Overall I am sure that it all is rationalized as in the best interest of the empire well above the common man's need to know.
why is Colbert not
as 'free and sharp' now like he was at the 2006 White House Press Corps Dinner?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSE_saVX_2A
9/11 Truth apparently present
Source: Crack Two
Click on the link and check the signs,
there are some pretty good ones.
Cheers, SnowCrash!
Corbett Report: Sunday Update - Rally for Sanity
Rally for Sanity, Zombies vs. Activists, Heckuva Job Larry - Sunday Update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaBjLx6LBcQ
corbettreport | October 31, 2010
Sunday Update is a public service of The Corbett Report podcast:
http://www.corbettreport.com
SOURCES AND DOCUMENTATION:
Stewart Speech at Rally For Sanity
http://ur1.ca/28daq
Daily Show Staff Assault Activists
http://ur1.ca/28db2
Antonello vs. Democrat Zombies
http://ur1.ca/28db7
Obama: Heckuva Job, Larry
http://ur1.ca/28dbg
Bush: Heckuva Job, Brownie
http://ur1.ca/28dbq
Larry Summers Caused the Crisis
http://ur1.ca/28dbw
Gerald Celente on Economics 101
http://ur1.ca/28dc1
...
At the same time, Stewart’s “politics of the golden mean” is a facile one, devoid of any understanding of the social forces driving politics, including the significant corporate financing behind the promotion of an extreme right-wing movement in the United States. Stewart expresses the attitude of the relatively comfortable middle-class supporters of the Democratic Party who are constantly trying to reach some sort of accommodation with the right.
The basic sentiment that Stewart sought to cultivate was one of complacency. The rally was called in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in generations, but there was absolutely no mention—either before or during the event—of the desperate situation facing millions of people. There was nothing about the ongoing wars carried out by both political parties that have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands. There was no hint of the unprecedented attack on democratic rights in the United States.
According to Stewart’s analysis, the immense divisions that are emerging in American society are little more than a media creation. The outlook is in fact preposterous.
http://wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/stew-n01.shtml
Shifting the frame of reference
Everybody should read that link. That commentary pretty much nails it, especially with regard to the warped conceptions Americans have of the political spectrum. It should be remembered that in America, there is no left-right paradigm, there is only a right-extreme right paradigm masquerading as a left-right paradigm.
The way you fabricate this misconception is to have utterly insane people clamoring that moderates or even right-of-center politicians are 'communists', 'socialists' and 'marxists'. Essentially anybody who is not an insane extreme rightist. It's very important to understand that the underlying goal of this rhetoric is to shift the entire frame of reference to the right. To be clear: in the eyes of Europeans, Obama is a right winger. However, this is going to change; because we are being Americanized in terms of culture, media and politics.
I see more and more rhetoric in my country about "socialists", "marxists" and "communists". I see more and more Limbaugh-like pundits and senseless right-wing extremist nihilism. I see newspapers tabloid-ifying. Increasing popularity of Climate Change denial. Racist headlines and texts in newspapers that were never respectable anyway, but seek to explore new levels of intellectual and moral bankruptcy. After all, in a shifting frame of reference to the extreme right and the cultivation of stoic indifference and complacency, it takes effort to sensitize people. Louder. More obnoxious. More provocative. More lies that inflame and rhetoric that incites. People that don't have a cent to spare and have to turn every dime find themselves disapproving of 'socialism'. Why?
The media.
Remember when Bill O'Reilly was bad? Where is he now? He's a sweetheart compared to Glenn Beck. Did Bill O'Reilly become mild in some way? No. Your frame of reference was cunningly shifted to the right. You are tempted to embrace people as sane who were never sane in the first place. What state is the world in if the only meaningful gathering of people for any cause (what cause?) can be facilitated by a comedian? Don't just blame the leadership: blame the people who don't have the ambition for anything but rallying for the consumption of entertainment.
ETA: See also: Brad Friedman — CNN Runs 2nd Recent Doc on Righwingers Tonight (& The Email Exchange I Had With Them About It) and Wikipedia — "Slacktivism"
Thanks for another brilliant comment, and reference material, Danse.
Spot on Snowcrash
I think you nailed it better than the article itself.
Insanity has won the election
The tea party movement can only be seen as bewitched by a hate media-induced hypnosis. A manufactured mass psychosis from the top down, directly and intently targeting useful idiots who've convinced themselves they are somehow not mouthpieces of the jingoist financial and military elite, but freedom fighters. This scheme has defanged the protest movement on the left completely, because they have been robbed the opportunity to win hearts and minds across the political spectrum.
A spectrum which has already been deliberately saturated by notions of 'activism' concocted by astroturfers. Think of a citizens mind as a tea cup. You can't fill up a cup that is already filled. You can actually close minds by filling them up with incendiary lies, before any sane commentator gets there first. A whole grassroots counterrevolutionary movement was constructed by the Koch brothers and their affiliates. There is indeed a horrifying fascist octopus, spreading its tentacles and slowly strangling the American psyche.
The avenues of protest for the citizenry have been neutralized by a scorched earth tactic.
There is a side-effect: while we should be scrutinizing the left and the moderates for their catastrophic failures to guard and protect democracy and liberty; we are instead utterly consumed with fending off the brainwashed, racist, corporatist foot soldiers on the extreme right.
This is a win-win situation for our opponents. There is little we can do. It is my belief the modern Tea Party movement in its earliest incarnation in 2006, represented a bridge of a political divide between left and right. The Tea Party movement was subsequently and accordingly identified as a threat by the right-wing nationalist establishment, then professionally subverted into a partisan clobbering device.
The United States and their allies are now in great peril.
Der Spiegel chimes in, chronicling America's imperial decline:
A Superpower in Decline: America's Middle Class Has Become Globalization's Loser
Wow well said, this country is getting dangerous
Your European perspective is quite helpful to us here in the US SnowCrash.
Response to Jon Stewart and Daily Show - please use this poster
http://liamscheff.com/2010/11/jon-stewart-americas-anchorman-on-911/
Hi,
please see blog for context -
Jon Stewart's response to 'what about building 7' was "Al Qaeda Did It?"
These 15 points should be presented to Stewart, or any 'reporter' or 'journalist' who takes an interest in the investigation, or makes public pronouncements about it.
Thanks for your help!