Itinerant Air-Cooled

Jon Stewart manages to illuminate the most painful news . . .
. . . our country has got to do better than this:

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/yt7an ... the-people

I've always enjoyed his ability to use sarcasm/comedy to bring topics into their true light. Again he's shown our foreign policy for what it is.... a patchwork of special interests.

Wish they'd give me some of those guns, so as I could melt 'em down an' make 'em into end play shims an' battery trays. They giving those helicopters away like they was dime store candy, but I'd rather have an ol' Huey any day.

Jivermo wrote:Wish they'd give me some of those guns, so as I could melt 'em down an' make 'em into end play shims an' battery trays. They giving those helicopters away like they was dime store candy, but I'd rather have an ol' Huey any day.

I think it is utterly reprehensible that we sell to both sides of conflicts that desperately need fewer arms and more examples of diplomacy and problem-solving.
What the hell are we doing? And why don't we citizens here demand that our corporate titans and our "representatives" look beyond their self-interested money-making and actually seek some common good for once.

We have behaved horribly in the Middle East since the early 50s. Installing and removing regimes? Selling BILLIONS of dollars of weaponry to Qatar? So they can "re-gift" it to al Queda? Is our Congress so beholden to the military industrial complex that they don't GET IT? Or do they get it, but don't care?
Colin

And not just the Middle East...Cuba, Central and South America, Europe...the landscape is littered with failed intrigues and schemes cooked up in Washington. Batista in Cuba is a great example. He was propped up by US interests until his people rose up and dumped his corrupt government, forcing his wealthy supporters to flee to (where else?) Miami, where they promptly set up shop again. Not only do we sow failure and hatred for democratic principles, we reestablish, in our own country, the perpetrators of our policies when their governments crumble. Come to Miami, and you'll see a city run like Havana in 1956. Somewhere, there is a young Fidel Castro, waiting in the wings...

Jivermo wrote:And not just the Middle East...Cuba, Central and South America, Europe...the landscape is littered with failed intrigues and schemes cooked up in Washington. Batista in Cuba is a great example. He was propped up by US interests until his people rose up and dumped his corrupt government, forcing his wealthy supporters to flee to (where else?) Miami, where they promptly set up shop again. Not only do we sow failure and hatred for democratic principles, we reestablish, in our own country, the perpetrators of our policies when their governments crumble. Come to Miami, and you'll see a city run like Havana in 1956. Somewhere, there is a young Fidel Castro, waiting in the wings...

Does this occur in the vacuum of our citizen apathy, or are we so constructed?
I find it incomprehensible.
ColinMyShoelacesAreIncomprehensibleThisMorning

Amskeptic wrote:Is our Congress so beholden to the military industrial complex that they don't GET IT? Or do they get it, but don't care?
Colin

They totally get it. Under the table, through the PAC, outlandish speaking fees, however they can in my opinion. That's what makes them beholden.

jcbrock wrote:

Amskeptic wrote:Is our Congress so beholden to the military industrial complex that they don't GET IT? Or do they get it, but don't care?
Colin

They totally get it. Under the table, through the PAC, outlandish speaking fees, however they can in my opinion. That's what makes them beholden.

You appear to say that they get IT ($$), but do they Get It (that which means anything in this world)?
ColinBoggledAtOurPredicaments

Amskeptic wrote: You appear to say that they get IT ($$), but do they Get It (that which means anything in this world)?
ColinBoggledAtOurPredicaments

I think a few do, trying to pull examples from both sides of the aisle I thought Bob Dole did, I thought Olympia Snowe did and I think our current Minnesota senators do. I am sure there are more. Most though seem to operate on the version of the golden rule that says 'those with the gold make the rules', and it seems like thinking and civil discourse are way down the list of required skills. This is nothing new in American politics though, recently reading about the Lincoln election of 1860 made me realize it wasn't any better then.

jcbrock wrote:reading about the Lincoln election of 1860 made me realize it wasn't any better then.

Yet, that is cold comfort in the current realm of historical perspective. We are more informed now, we know better the right path, we have more examples of suffering, of thwarted promise, we have more data, we have HD TV showing the public liars and swindlers and political beholden's sweat with more even more clarity, now in the present. Aren't we supposed to aim higher?
ColinNaaah,DuckDynasty'sOnCYA

SSDD