One explanation why U.S. policies serve no national interests
This article comes from The Unz Review: An Alternative Media Selection which has a collection of essays from both the right and left (but mainly from left progressive). This particular article was first featured at Ron Paul Institute’s conference on peace and prosperity held on September 10, 2016 in Dulles, Virginia. I particularly like the cartoon which shows how the public have been divided and ruled. Let's hope we can overcome the hurdles to fight the billionaires club?
Personally, I think libertarian ism will be as effective as a paper tiger in taking on the billionaires club, in fact, it will let them off Scot free and then give them some, but hey, we've got to unite on this before it's too late.
On September 9th the Washington Post featured a front page article describing how the Defense Department had used warplanes to attack targets and kill suspected militants in six countries over the Labor Day weekend. The article was celebratory, citing Pentagon officials who boasted of the ability to engage “multiple targets” anywhere in the world in what has become a “permanent war.” The article did not mention that the United States is not currently at war with any of the six target countries and made no attempt to make a case that the men and women who were killed actually threatened the U.S. or American citizens.
Actual American interests in fighting a war without limits and without an end were not described. They never are. Indeed, in the U.S. and elsewhere many citizens often wonder how certain government policies like the Washington’s war on terror can persist in spite of widespread popular opposition or clear perceptions that they are either ineffective or even harmful. This persistence of policies regarding which there is no debate is sometimes attributed to a “deep state.”
Meanwhile both targeted citizens and often innocent foreigners who fit profiles are assassinated by drones without any legal process or framework. Lying to start a war as well as the war crimes committed by U.S. troops and contractors on far flung battlefields including torture and rendition are rarely investigated and punishment of any kind is so rare as to be remarkable when it does occur.
Here at home banks are bailed out and corporate interests are protected by law. Huge multi-year defense contracts are approved for ships and planes that are both vulnerable and money pits. The public is routinely surveilled, citizens are imprisoned without being charged or are tried by military tribunals, the government increasingly cites state secrets privilege to conceal its actions and whistleblowers are punished with prison. America the warlike predatory capitalist operating with little interference or input from the citizenry might be considered a virtual definition of deep state.
Some observers believe that the deep state is driven by the “Washington Consensus,” a subset of the “American exceptionalism” meme.
If anyone has been following Apple, Google, GM, Uber, Amazon, Microsoft and the rest who are fighting over who gets rights to provide the hardware that will control traffic and monitor vehicle movements, you know it is becoming clear that roads designed for human driven machines don't work for machines driven by computers.
ReplyDeleteSo the competition is fierce to equip roadways because in providing the equipment that will enable computer driven machines on roadways, they will set the rules of the road and control all the information, and decide who is allowed with which vehicles, and at what price, and who isn't. This is a giant public resource ripe for the capture with trillions at stake world wide. And even with the properly designed and equipped road, there is a massive benefit to prohibiting human drivers altogether ("for safety") so that everyone is forced to buy the self driving vehicles and the equipment. So we knew it was only a matter of time before the "issue" started making headlines and preparing people mentally for the inevitable. This is like the jobs that are gone and are never coming back. There is no alternative is the framing. If you've been watching the insurance companies are putting out press releases too, confirming this. So today, headlining bloomberg, we get it, Get Ready for Freeways That Ban Human Drivers. It appears they are trying to get Democratic party buy-in by framing it an environment issue in congested cities. For republican minded people, it is an issue of safety, efficiency and cost.
But there is nothing inevitable in this discussion. The public can set whatever rules they want for the roads, but there is no debate on the issue. When the 1% want anything, it is 'deep state', presented as inevitable change, a march of progress.
Everything the US does in Syria is a war crime and it would be great to see some prosecutions while I am still alive. I always wanted to Bush and Cheney indited among others and now I would like to see Obama, Clinton and Biden Indited among others. But, it ain't going to happen I know.
ReplyDelete"Deep State America" is the best summary of the US "deep state" that I have encountered. Covers the bases in a few paragraphs. A+
ReplyDeleteAgree, Tom. Kaivey, you neglected to note the most important fact. Philip Giraldi wrote it. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteKaivey,
ReplyDeleteYou need to use [...] to indicate a break in the original prose when you blockquote. Your quote of Giraldi's article was not a straight lifting of consecutive paragraphs from the original, as the blockquote usually indicates. It's only fair to the original author and your reader to show you edited the selection.
Good editing, though. I would have fucked it up.
The convention is that brackets […] signify an addition to an original text by an editor.
ReplyDeleteEllipsis is the omission of words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs from von original text. Ellipsis is signified by a series of dots, ….. usually three if within the same sentence and three added to the period for sentences.
Paragraph elision is indicated by adding three dots after the period and then a return to begin a new paragraph.
It is not necessary to indicate how much text is omitted, but the convention is that the original meaning and intention of the author should not be altered by editing.