End to Nukes? Not while our corporations run things!

Desmond Tutu has an article on ending nuclear weapons. In it he said, "Two-thirds of all governments have called for such a treaty, known as a nuclear weapons convention, and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has voiced his support for the idea. Only the nuclear weapon states and NATO members are holding us back."

And therein hangs the tale. The major nuclear powers hold Security Council seats. When the UN was set up, the "winners" of WW-II were not about to be told what to do by a couple of hundred small nations. Therefore, the SC was formed and has veto power over anything presented by the UN.

You can see how that works when the UN overwhelmingly votes to restrict Israel's genocide, or its aggressive wars; and especially when they try to force Israel to divulge any details of its massive nuclear weapons program and its nuclear arsenal. The US vetoes it and Israel pats it on the back, says "Good boy!" and receives its annual $3 billion gift in weapons technology and hardware, courtesy of the US taxpayer.

As long as the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex (MICC) can maximize its profits through war and nuclear technology, we will not see any progress.

The United States government is supposed to be governed, and limited by, a Constitution put in place by "the consent of the governed," We the People. In actuality, if two-thirds of the American populace were to rise up and insist on an end to nuclear weaponry, or to war itself, our alleged Representatives would check with the MICC, who would tell them to vote "No" or face losing their corporate contribution gravy train.

We would quickly find out what the voice and opinion of We the People is worth, as we have many times in the past. The wishes of a few billionaires outweighs the will of the people at a ratio of about three or four billionaires to two hundred million people.

The United States has turned into a fascist government, a marriage of government with big corporations. We the People have only the duty to provide tax money and cannon fodder for our wars of aggression. We are no longer citizens of the United States, we are now subjects of the American Empire, just as we were subjects of the British Empire and the King of England prior to 1776.

If you look at what is happening in the Gulf today, you can see the proof. BP has done incalculable damage to the world's ecosystem, damage which continues to grow. Has the government stepped in, taken control, mobilized most of the planetary oil recovery experts and equipment, seizing BP's funds to finance the effort?

No, BP is still in charge, doing what they wish, holding off any outside agencies, refusing to divulge vital information, and telling the government to back off. The government has even been running reporters off the Louisiana beaches and confiscating cameras.

However, we will have a Blue Ribbon panel to investigate the spill! Just like the Warren Commission and the 9-11 Commission, where little of substance is investigated and, after the whitewash, will be classified and put into sealed archives for the next generation to read, if any...

Do you think we still have a representative government? Technically, yes, but it represents the corporate "persons," not We the People.

End nuclear weaponry? Not unless the Corporations agree. They won't.

On Missiles, Drones and Bug Splats

It's getting harder to blog these days. Every article on the net, nationally and internationally, seems to be more war, more preparation for war, mostly by the US. Now we are developing an “ICBM” with a “conventional” warhead, so we can strike anywhere in the world within ten minutes. Most of the major nations of the world have spent a lot of money to be able to track and respond to a missile attack. The last time it was attempted to launch this program, it was “shot down” by cooler heads, even in the military. The argument, now, is that we will notify any nations that are crossed by the missile not to worry, “It is not a nuke. Trust us, would we lie to you?”

The Military Industrial Congressional Complex (MICC) that is making billion$ off the war machine are not about to lose their best cash cow by committing peace. Somehow, they can get billion$ more for weaponry and experimental weapons, but poor kids can’t get enough milk to prevent rickets.

The greed of this Oligarchy is unbounded and it is based on war. One simple way to predict where we are heading is by looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan. Every Pashtun that objects to foreign occupation and fights back against the invader is, by US definition, a terrorist or insurgent. Therefore, we can kill him, his family and friends. Every time we do so, we recruit even more to the cause of expelling the invader. Now we are “looking into” the Special Forces killing of a family and the attempted coverup by the military.

We raid and kill, from the sky, from the ground, with impunity. Our “brave” drone pilots sitting in Nevada, (Do they wear leather bomber jackets, too?) flying their computer screens classify their body counts as “bug splats.” Not humans, not even collateral damage, bug splats! What you get on your windshield on a Summer’s day.

The Pentagon has announced that the “F-35" fighter development program has jumped from an estimated $178 billion to $328.25 billion with projections that it could go even higher as inflation continues. That is jut one program. Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and other Offense Contractors have dozens more running in the wings, soaking up anything available in overruns.

The Pentagon says it costs a million dollar$ a year to keep one soldier in Afghanistan. It costs probably a hundred thousand dollar$ to keep a drone flying and to launch a Hellfire missile on a village compound. Lord only knows how much is expended for each air strike. The cost of keeping task forces of carriers and their supports in the area must be hundreds of million$ if not billion$. Apparently, all this must be expended to chase an estimated hundred or so “terrorists” around the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, while we create legions of courageous fighters intent on our extermination because of our raids and killings.

Now, here is where the rubber meets the road. The Pashtun make their weapons in caves, cost negligible. They make their ammunition in caves, cost negligible. It takes a bullet or two to kill or wound a million dollar warrior. You do the math.

Of course, to the MICC that is fine. Most of the money ends up in their pockets and, in a depressed and stagnant economy, there are lots of hungry Yanks to send “over there.” Cannon fodder is cheap and plentiful and the MICC gets a great dividend for seeing that they are sent out there.

Even if we eventually lose, the MICC makes out, for they will get billion$ more to build weapons to "avenge" our losses! The main loss, however, is ours, for we have lost our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Independent Judiciary, our privacy, our checks and balances that were to protect us from dictatorship.

As I have said before, read some history, look at the parallels, then see where we are headed. Then, marshal up the guts to “head it off at the pass.” We are really running out of time, folks.

Our Fairly Subtle Conversion to Fascism

Chris Hedges wrote an interesting article, published on CommonDreams,

Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’

It quickly got almost three-hundred comments. One commenter likened what is happening in the US to Nazi Germany. A response to that was that we were being very disrespectful to equate the trashing of a synagogue here, a “few broken windows” with the holocaust, which killed millions.

I felt constrained to answer, and decided to put it in the blog lest we forget.

When people come apart at the seams because someone compares the US to Nazi Germany; "A few broken windows to the holocaust," I must point out that National Socialism started out with a few thugs breaking the heads of the opposition, vandalizing homes and buildings. As the power grew, the thugs became the SA, brown-shirted armband wearing arrogant thugs, using quasi-military training. Slowly, as their power grew, they became more intrusive. Finally, as Hitler came to power, the SA could enter your home, search it for any sign of opposition, or Jewish artifacts, trash your home, drag you into the street where you might be "shot while trying to escape." The alternative was a concentration camp.

It wasn't until the SA became internationally embarrassing to the Reich that Hitler instituted the "Night of the Long Knives," killed off the SA leadership and rid himself of possible competitors. After that, the "rehabilitated" SA and the SS really began their works of terror and the "final solution."

My point? Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, started small. They could even have been stopped early on, but nobody did anything. For the most part, they were treated as a bad joke. By the time the people realized they weren't, it was far too late.

It is starting small here, too. But it is growing and our apathy is giving it strength through non-resistance.

Read Sebastian Happner's Defying Hitler. It is an authentic journal by a German boy who grew up during WW-I and lived through the chaos that followed. He fled Germany in 1939, when it was becoming apparent that his chance of survival was becoming minuscule. One of the stories was of a group of friends of varying political persuasions who used to get together, sample good wine and talk. At the last get together of this group, one said to Happner, "For expressing those opinions, I should report you to the Gestapo, but as we are old friends, I won't this time." He waited in fear for several weeks for the knock on the door in the middle of the night, before he finally decided that his "friend" had not turned him in.

Haven't we been trained in the past decade or so to watch what we say or what we write? Political correctness! Think carefully before you open your mouth to be sure there is no possibility that some group might take offense, turn you in, have you arrested, sue you for everything you own. Any opinions expressed should be carefully vetted to see that it won't lose you your job, your place in the community. We went through that when I was in High School and McCarthy was running amok. We foolishly thought that was all over when he finally overreached himself and took on the army.

The ones we consider "crazies," the Tea-Baggers and others of their ilk need not worry. Their opinions are approved by Miniprop and the Thought Police, i.e., Homeland Security (HS) , as is the continually increasing intrusion into our lives and privacy "for our own good and safety, " of course.

Remember the program in Bush's early administration which Congress refused to ratify? Knowing government, they've gone ahead and done it anyway. "Citizens, watch your neighbors. Report anything unusual, or any controversial opinions expressed, for evaluation by HS. Remember, terrorists are everywhere and only your vigilance can root them out."

Millions of Americans on "no-fly" and "border watch" lists, travel restricted. Our e-mail, phone conversations, and even spoken conversation in our homes may be recorded and data mined. The list is growing by some twenty-thousand a day! If millions of Americans are considered potential terrorists and put on watch lists, then perhaps it is the government who should be on the lists, should be restricted by We the People from committing their excesses, but sadly, it won't be.

When the day comes that a large part of We the People are looking out through the razor wire, we will understand, but by then, it will probably be too late.

Obama's speech to the troops at Bagram Gulag and air base, (wearing his leather "Bomber's Jacket" reminiscent of Bush and his "Mission Accomplished" flight suit ) should be a wake-up call to us all. Endless deaths, of soldiers and peasants, endless war for oil and minerals and pipeline routes. The same sort of arguments Hitler used as he took small country after country.

Obama is just a shill, a mouthpiece like his predecessor. He just speaks better English. The Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex that Eisenhower warned us about is very powerful, very wealthy, and has bought the government, lock, stock and barrel. War is the most profitable thing in the world and they are not going let it go as long as they are in charge. They are in charge.

Thomas Jefferson once said, When the government fears the people, that is freedom. When the people fear the government, that is tyranny."

Be afraid, be very afraid. Better yet, start thinking about how to turn this runaway freight around, or at least stop it.