News and Current Events - 2012

[morrobay]

Wow, nothing about the urinating Marines?!

You can watch an uncensured version here but you can't really see the penises unfortunately:
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/marines-allegedly-urinate-afghans
(I like that" allegedly".  What, allegedly urinating or allegedly urinating on afghans?)

Sadly the golden showering marines will become scapegoats.  I think they should get a slap on the wrist and nothing more.  They're commanding officers, who trained them to be the mindless killing machines should be the ones we go after.  I have completely lost respect for Hilary Clinton.  And, Obama really.

I just saw this for the first time last night and it didn't bother me in the least.  It was men like those being pissed on who would cheerfully kill anyone who opposes them, kill in the name of God.  Clinton's holier-than-the-rest-of-the-world made me want to puke, though.

And you're right, they will be scapegoats, like Calley for My Lai...

We're too bent under pc'ness and trying to be friends w/everyone to ever be as strong as we were in the past...we will be overrun by enemies as we ask them if we can hold their hat and coat...

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I saw this program last night and thought I'd recommend it.
Many PBS stations carry it and one can find if it's airing in your
area here:

http://billmoyers.com/schedule/

Moyers & Co.: How Washington and Big Business Colluded to Make the Rich Richer
Friday 13 January 2012

This weekend Bill Moyers returns to television with Moyers & Company. In his first show, Bill explores how Washington made the rich richer at the expense of the middle class. On Friday, the premiere episode of Moyers & Company, Bill’s guests – Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, authors of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer -- And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, argue that America’s vast inequality is no accident, but in fact has been politically engineered.

How in a nation as rich as America can the economy simply stop working for people at large, while super-serving those at the very top? Through exhaustive research and analysis, the political scientists Hacker and Pierson detail important truths behind a 30-year economic assault against the middle class.

Who’s the culprit? “American politics did it-- far more than we would have believed when we started this research,” Hacker explains. “What government has done and not done, and the politics that produced it, is really at the heart of the rise of an economy that has showered huge riches on the very, very, very well off.”

Bill considers their book the best he’s seen detailing “how politicians rewrote the rules to create a winner-take-all economy that favors the 1% over everyone else, putting our once and future middle class in peril.” In addition to the eye-opening interview, the show includes testimony of middle-class Americans at a Senate hearing, as well as an essay on how Occupy Wall Street reflects a widespread belief that politics no longer works for ordinary people.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I know, what else could she say.  Applauding would have been too honest, lol!  As far as my country is concerned, I haven't been proud to be Canadian in quite a while.   We have the world's dirtiest oil & we dump asbestos on third world countries.  We are one of the world's biggest emitters of green house gases and pulled out of the Kyoto agreement. Also, we too are on the road to becoming a police state with the vile Harper as our own "Dear Leader".  Anyway, sorry if I caused offence, I'm just feeling pretty pessimistic these days.  

EDIT:  I just found this nugget which is states more eloquently what I was trying to say in my previous post:

I'm Confused: It's Okay to Kill Afghanis, But Not Okay to Urinate on the Bodies?
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/13261

It's not that I think you caused any offense, oillgun, it's that I worry that you are in a state of
perpetual state of pessimism over things which are out of your control and I wonder if that is so
healthy.  There are enough things in the world to which one can take offense, but isn't it just
healthier to bend toward the places we wish to be and sort of let it go at that?  In this specific case,
what I mean is that I understand, or at least think I do,  how many people caught up in sustained military
pressures can do some things that civilians and even other military people would or might find abhorrent.
When it comes to light I don't think the perpetrators, the marines in this case, should be made total scapegoats
for it, and it's right for a Government to come out and condemn the actions (so we can bend toward our better
natures, say) but there also has to be an understanding of what "war" can do over time to people involved in it.
(The Indian saying is something like that you have to walk a mile in another persons moccassins to totally understand
them.)

Although it's from nearly 50 years ago and geared toward the sentiments and sensibilities of people of
that time, I've been watching episodes from the WWII series Combat lately and each one is a kind of
morality play that deals with these kinds of issues.  Anyway, I hope you can find some things to be
optimistic about and bend a little toward that way. 

[Marge_Innavera]

Marge, to answer your first paragraph, I was merely responding to what Gary said about not capping payroll deductions for social security.  I agreed with that.  That seems like a good idea because it would not hurt low-income people, which is why I used my own example (I wasn't low-income if I'd reached the point where the cap kicked in).  That has nothing to do with whether I would expect the GOP to stop at that point, and I am not commenting on what else they might do.

I really have no comment to your last paragraph either, except to say that I understand the problem with ruinous medical expenses.  Governmental support of some kind is necessary.  I also understand that the government is going broke.  And I have no good suggestions as to how to reconcile the two.  It's a mess.

We seem to be in agreement, then.  But for the record, I wouldn't trust the GOP to stop at that, not as far as I could throw any of them.

It's worth noting that at present, an SS recipient can get full benefits and still work, up to an annual income from employment of $14,000.  I'm old enough to remember when $14,000 a year was a good income but that hasn't been the case for several decades.  Maybe an individual with no debts, dependents or health problems could live on it but that's it.  So people who are still working and drawing Social Security aren't necessarily fleecing the rest of the population.

[brokebacktom]

Do you honestly think the GOP in its present form would stop at that point? 

And I do hope you're aware that your own experience isn't everyone's.  The #1 cause of bankruptcy in the US is now not credit card debt but ruinous medical expenses.  Would you advocate cutting Medicare and Medicaid, and if so, what would you expect low-income people to do?

You are correct. The GOP will not stop until SS is completely gone. Remember they never wanted the program to begin with. Again you are right about bankruptcy, most of them occurred because of health problems, and 40% of those the individual did have Health Care to begin with, but it wasn't enough coverage to cover all the expenses. 

[oilgun]

both are ok w/me

You think it's ok to kill and urinate on people?!  Really?!  WTF?

If the U.S. brought all their fucking troops home it wouldn't have any enemies.

[oilgun]

It's not that I think you caused any offense, oillgun, it's that I worry that you are in a state of
perpetual state of pessimism over things which are out of your control and I wonder if that is so
healthy.  There are enough things in the world to which one can take offense, but isn't it just
healthier to bend toward the places we wish to be and sort of let it go at that?  In this specific case,
what I mean is that I understand, or at least think I do,  how many people caught up in sustained military
pressures can do some things that civilians and even other military people would or might find abhorrent.
When it comes to light I don't think the perpetrators, the marines in this case, should be made total scapegoats
for it, and it's right for a Government to come out and condemn the actions (so we can bend toward our better
natures, say) but there also has to be an understanding of what "war" can do over time to people involved in it.
(The Indian saying is something like that you have to walk a mile in another persons moccassins to totally understand
them.)

Although it's from nearly 50 years ago and geared toward the sentiments and sensibilities of people of
that time, I've been watching episodes from the WWII series Combat lately and each one is a kind of
morality play that deals with these kinds of issues.  Anyway, I hope you can find some things to be
optimistic about and bend a little toward that way. 

I'm sorry, but it seems you don't understand anything at all. It surprises me because I respect you.

[brokebacktom]

You think it's OK to kill and urinate on people?!  Really?!  WTF?

If the U.S. brought all their fucking troops home it wouldn't have any enemies.

I was also shocked with that response.

[morrobay]

You think it's ok to kill and urinate on people?!  Really?!  WTF?

If the U.S. brought all their fucking troops home it wouldn't have any enemies.

i'm sure that's not true...

[morrobay]

I'm sorry, but it seems you don't understand anything at all. It surprises me because I respect you.

now there's a wtf comment...

[Marge_Innavera]

both are ok w/me

You might be causing still more casualties -- heads are going to explode.   

[morrobay]

You might be causing still more casualties -- heads are going to explode.  

they were told to go there (I don't agree w/the decision)...they aren't fighting for xbox games at walmart on black friday (although that can get pretty violent)

what do you think happens in war?  do you think this is a one-time thing?  surely no one on this board is so naive...i'm not saying it's right, i'm saying it happens...there are things that are sacrificed when men and women are sent to FIGHT...most of us will never know what it takes to pull the trigger, or have their vehicle explode as they're driving somewhere...


I did not celebrate in the streets as some did when bid laden was killed, no one I knew did, either...but on some level we were "happy" that he had been taken out...

our soldiers are trained to kill and when they do, we're outraged...

[Cally]

they were told to go there (I don't agree w/the decision)...they aren't fighting for xbox games at walmart on black friday (although that can get pretty violent)

what do you think happens in war?  do you think this is a one-time thing?  surely no one on this board is so naive...i'm not saying it's right, i'm saying it happens...there are things that are sacrificed when men and women are sent to FIGHT...most of us will never know what it takes to pull the trigger, or have their vehicle explode as they're driving somewhere...


I did not celebrate in the streets as some did when bid laden was killed, no one I knew did, either...but on some level we were "happy" that he had been taken out...

our soldiers are trained to kill and when they do, we're outraged...

I understand and agree with what you're sayiing, Nancy, but I have to say that that is not how "both are ok w/me" comes across .  I was very glad to read this post.

The sadness is: war is degrading.

[morrobay]

I understand and agree with what you're sayiing, Nancy, but I have to say that that is not how "both are ok w/me" comes across .  I was very glad to read this post.

The sadness is: war is degrading.

i agree, i shouldn't have said it that way...i've deleted the post

yes, war is degrading, as you put it...i don't think we send our people to war on a whim...whoever said that if we just bring all troops home from every country, there would be peace, is, in my opinion, very, very wrong.  Men (mostly) will fight.

[oilgun]

i agree, i shouldn't have said it that way...i've deleted the post

yes, war is degrading, as you put it...i don't think we send our people to war on a whim...whoever said that if we just bring all troops home from every country, there would be peace, is, in my opinion, very, very wrong.  Men (mostly) will fight.

I didn't say there would be peace, I said the US would have no enemies.  Let me change that to way fewer enemies, I forgot about France, lol!