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"America's Ship Is Sinking" Former Bush Official Exposes The Unfixable Corruption Inside The Establishment

Tyler Durden's picture




 

"This ship is sinking," retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson tells Abby Martin, adding that "today the purpose of US foreign policy is to support the complex that we have created in the national security state that is fueled, funded, and powered by interminable war."

The former national security advisor to the Reagan administration, who spent years as an assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell during both Bush administrations reflects on the sad but honest reflection on what America has become as he exposes the unfixable corruption inside the establishment and the corporate interests driving foreign policy.

"It's never been about altruism, it's about sheer power."

 

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Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:34 | 6947754 stant
stant's picture

Never meant to be a empire. Just a republic

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:40 | 6947767 runswithscissors
runswithscissors's picture

The problem is folks allowed the empire to take over...now its more of a banana republic.

 

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:54 | 6947777 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

What they would do to "the other" they would do to us.  Off-shoring US manufacturing jobs is as clear an example of this as I can think of.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:06 | 6947818 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Republics are easy to corrupt.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:13 | 6947834 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

It is worth it to watch the entire interview, especially the very end.  He is asked what it would take to stop the bullshit, and he responded along the lines of "It would take a substantial minority, or even a majority of the people to stand up and say no more.  Does that mean revolution?  Possibly." 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:27 | 6947873 y3maxx
y3maxx's picture

white americans, move to downtown Detroit.

jews move to Dearborn

that'll bring an end to the MIC

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:53 | 6948062 Transformer
Transformer's picture

Palace Coup, Nov 22, 1963

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 03:03 | 6948071 DJ Happy Ending
DJ Happy Ending's picture

Funny how these types always become outspoken about the MIC or crony capitalism after they're retired.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 03:38 | 6948089 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Petreus... get inside the evil and you will be aghast.

http://thegroundtruthproject.org/afghanistan-petraeus-should-be-ashamed-...

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 04:00 | 6948101 beemasters
beemasters's picture

Let's hope he will arrange to lead "a substantial minority, or even a majority of the people to stand up and say no more"....or it will be not more effective than rants/comments on ZH (yeah, sad but true).

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:27 | 6948152 Miles Ahead
Miles Ahead's picture

sad but true...

Sad?  What are comments on a blog site supposed to do?  Govern a society?  Start a revolution?  Did you actually think you were contributing something here besides whiling the time away in lieu of reading a book?  Sad, but true.

And "let's hope"?  Hope... that's your (y'alls) first problem.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:52 | 6948196 beemasters
beemasters's picture

Fair enough comment.
Personally, I'm doing what I can to pass the message on; perhaps it will hit the right note for the right people down the line. It's not easy when the majority is like you suggesting to look the other way and enjoy life (possibly by reading 50 shades??).

Lawrence Wilkerson was part of the establishment, so I do hold him responsible too to lead the change. Not everyone is a born leader. He seems to have what it takes....only if he truly means what he says.

I have my reservations too after hearing what he said. He didn't name names. It's difficult when they still cover each other's ass even after retirement or are still afraid for their own well-beings doing so.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:58 | 6948248 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

 

 

Republics are easy to corrupt.

 

Correct.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:07 | 6948269 Momauguin Joe
Momauguin Joe's picture

End of life clarity, once they realize they can't take their ill gotten wealth to the other side. Die, you fuckers.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:26 | 6948597 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

Yet Soros and Buffet are as evil as e ever. Probably more so now than before.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:48 | 6948662 Tarzan
Tarzan's picture

"Funny how these types always become outspoken about the MIC or crony capitalism after they're retired."

 

Self preservation is a powerful motivator, especially when you have Family depending on you.  These guys who refuse to go quietly into the night, who sing to anyone willing to listen after they've broken free from the entanglements of their slavery, or "Job", are needed if we're ever going to expose the evil in Washington.

I for one am glad to see these insiders coming out and turning on the establishment after retirement.  I hope more of the Generals who Obama kicked to the curb during his purging of descent in the Military will throw caution to the wind and begin to expose the Truth about who manipulates and enslaves the People of the world!

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:28 | 6948864 Demdere
Demdere's picture

I agree. Societies depend on their elders, people retired from active life and judging from wide experience, to point out these problems of direction and emphasis.

Our officer corp is silent.  The military didn't notice 9/11, the intelligence services didn't notice 9/11, the police forces didn't notice 9/11 all around the world.  Even after we have spent so much effort point it out.

This uniformity is the danger, how did we put such a mono-culture into our world?  Mono-cultures are susceptable to viruses and groupthink.

Take your kid out of school, give them a computer, stand by to help them grow up.  End the monoculture.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:10 | 6948272 doctor10
doctor10's picture

"..are still afraid for their own well-beings doing so."

Thats what the NSA spying thingy is all about

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 18:47 | 6950721 JRobby
JRobby's picture

Unfixably peaceful means he meant to say?

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:34 | 6948438 Dr. Spin
Dr. Spin's picture

BINGO!  DJ,

This dick like countless others is still pulling at the public teat.  To put it quite simply, we have a government we can no longer afford. 

Spoctor Din

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:49 | 6948481 NeedtoSecede
NeedtoSecede's picture

1913 was a pretty bad year for the republic too...

 

Secession anyone?

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:36 | 6947990 Max Cynical
Max Cynical's picture

Assad using chemical weapons on his people...BULLSHIT! He didn't believe it from the moment he heard it.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:40 | 6948046 boattrash
boattrash's picture

E.V.  Spot On! Probably one of the most well placed interviews I've seen in years.

I had my family down for an early Christmas (the oldest grandson stayed) and we will watch this Vid. together. It will be the basis of our conversation on the way home.

Yep, he got his XBox One, but it wasn't loaded with war games, as I just see those as a training tool of the MICC, in that they 1. teach the bravery of being out of range. 2. push the dehumanization of the "enemy".

Hell of it is, at 10 years of age, I bet he'll understand. So many 2, 3, 4, and even 5 times his age never will.

P.S. Thanks to Wifey for the reminder not to cave on my moral standard.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:29 | 6948610 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

Don't worry, that Xbox will be filled with war games soon enough.
....and congratulations on giving money to one hell of an evil corporate entity.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:06 | 6948760 boattrash
boattrash's picture

You should see my check stubs. I give a shitload more $$ to a far more evil organization...

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:05 | 6948138 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

Maybe someday we will see on the news that a division with tank and air support took over Washington and the White House, charging the Commander-In-Chief with treason. Don't hold your breath. Today's volunteer army is made up of the people who had no better option in life than the military. It's made up of poor white trash and ghetto blacks.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:30 | 6948154 Miles Ahead
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And of course it should be made up of Decent White Folk and Blacks who are a credit to their race.  So I'm guessing you never supported any of the wars post WWII from your upper middle class loft.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:45 | 6948238 Gazooks
Gazooks's picture

sadly, bullshit ends only with total human extinction

 

 

just like the 'market', the game's fundamentally rigged

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:17 | 6948816 WillyGroper
WillyGroper's picture

@EV,

IMO if folks had the essentials needed & literally boycotted spending so much as 1 red cent for a week, maybe 2, that alone would go further than any words spoken.

Don't feed the beast.

With blood nor fiat.

Tue, 12/22/2015 - 21:44 | 6954906 Crash Overide
Crash Overide's picture

He is asked what it would take to stop the bullshit, and he responded along the lines of "It would take a substantial minority, or even a majority of the people to stand up and say no more.  Does that mean revolution?  Possibly."

 

 

I say no more... and I got all your backs for as long as I can hold the line.

I am done with the bullshit.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:28 | 6947878 ToSoft4Truth
ToSoft4Truth's picture

There is no such thing as a “Republic”.

Who were the first to turn troops against the fledging Americans, the very ‘Founders of the ‘Republic’”, that’s who. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 04:47 | 6948134 monk27
monk27's picture

We are a republic all right. It's just that we also got a banana in front of it...

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:00 | 6948256 Urban Redneck
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That's what happens in a Republic.  Unfortunately, while better educated than today, the peanut gallery in 1786, were knuckle dragging troglodytes vis-a-vis the elite.  

A Republic is rule by the elite.  It has been for over 2000 years, and that did not fundamentally change during the Enlightenment.

The American Republic was founded by a faction of the Colonial elite.  

Until the masses successfully educate themselves (because the State WILL NOT) the elite will continue to rule.

People need to read actual texts (preferably annotated if they aren't literate in the language of the original text), and certainly not just summaries and interpretations contained in textbooks.  

Then they need to actually think and properly reason.

When you try and shortcut that process you wind up with teabaggers attributing the Constitution to divine intervention, and niggers, cunts and other SJW untermenschen who think that they will be the beneficiaries of an empowered State.

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:45 | 6948329 piratepiet2
piratepiet2's picture

"People need to read actual texts"

Which texts would you recommend ? 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:41 | 6948459 Urban Redneck
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If limited to one book, then Aristotle's Politikê (Politics).  It's expounds upon the arguably mistitled Republic of Plato.  Plato was actually a fascist, (and thus his idealized Politeia, was fascist, and strikingly similar to what the US has today) which probably explains why the disciples of Leo Strauss (both left & right, Jew & non-Jew alike) get so far with his nihilist interpretations, which also conveniently disregard the evidence the reason Machiavelli's Prince was written in Italian, instead of Latin, was because the work was satire (e.g. Rousseau's interpretation), and actually intended as a warning to the masses, as opposed to strictly a how to manual for the elite.  

The various definitions and usage of Politeia are critical though.  The Wikipedia link above is as fine as two minute introduction, but the various historical usages of politiea coupled with the limitations of available corresponding words in Latin or English plague translations of both Plato and Aristotle.  Plato's ideal politeia was a benevolent oligarchy for the common good, Aristotle's response was that the ideal politeia was a benevolent democracy for the common good (the notion of universal suffrage did not exist in Ancient Greece, so the pool of voters was smaller).  

So in modern English we have a word from Latin (Republic) that was used to translate benevolent oligarchy, but no word for benevolent democracy, and in fact Democracy has been systematically denigrated as mob rule, when a prerequisite for that actually is actually democracy in pursuit of self interest, whereas oligarchy in pursuit of self interest gets a pass from those who control the education of the masses.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:14 | 6948799 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

Seneca is far better reading than Plato.  The readings of Cicero are also pretty good. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:19 | 6948801 piratepiet2
piratepiet2's picture

Thank you. I will have a look at that book.  I am not really schooled in the subject matter, but I have come to understand that "democracy" has a different meaning for different people.  While the elites present democracy to the common people as an end, in reality for them it does not seem to be an end but a means.  Basically, the end is to obtain or retain power, and the democracy narrative forms part of the legitimization process that is required to reach that end. 

(just realise that to many old cunning bastards around here this probably sounds like a child calling out Santa Claus for a fake). 

(Btw, great website archives.org, is new to me )

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:24 | 6948844 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

UR's advice is very good. don't agree with everything, but generally... yes

ancient Athens is a very good ancient example of why democracy has a different meaning. because you had to belong to the "Demos", first

roughly 100'000 souls in total, the question of the demos was how many. ranging from 400 to 4'000 to 20'000 being allowed to vote

that you had to be free, male and adult, on this everybody agreed. but you had to be useful for war, too. and a marine power needed... rowers

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 12:09 | 6949067 Urban Redneck
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Ghordius' insight below is also very important neither "Democracy" nor "Republic" nor "Constitution" belong to the United States of America... alone.

My interest lies in starting with the valid critiques of the American founding fathers and their work and tracing the evolution of process through the rise of the Federal government and its capture and manipulation by monied interests to the corporatist mliitarist empire that is basically unrestrained in the US today.  So there's material I'm leaving out (including most of the Enlightenment), and I'm oversimplifying the classics in a particular fashion (although IMO better than the publisher's of Cliff's Notes oversimplify).    

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:07 | 6948539 Miss Expectations
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The Newburgh Incident

In 1783, with the Revolutionary War nearly over, the American dream of an independent republic almost died at the hands of the army that fought for it. While Continental Army officers waited in camp at Newburgh, New York, for negotiators to end the conflict, their long-simmering frustration with Congress finally boiled over. Anger swept through the corps from the lieutenants to the generals. These men had had enough—enough of inedible rations, inadequate clothing and supplies, and, most important, years of foregoing pay. A coup was in the making. Even the British knew it. As one of their spies reported, military contempt for congressmen meeting in Philadelphia was so fierce that the army was “ripe for annihilating them.”

http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Autumn14/civilian.cfm

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 04:26 | 6948123 StychoKiller
StychoKiller's picture

Democracies are even easier!

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:28 | 6948153 conscious being
conscious being's picture

I was looking for a place to say the same thing Stycho. That's why the FF's started off with a republic, which the banksters have gradually whittled down to mob rule by a dependent majority of LIVs, Low Information Voters.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:04 | 6948265 Urban Redneck
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You fundamentally misunderstand the means of control.  Mob Rule is the antithesis of what the elite seek.  Their designs benefit from an ignorant citizenry, but their designs are WHOLLY DEPENDENT UPON A FUNCTIONING REPUBLIC

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:08 | 6948759 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Take it easy with the fundumentally misunderstands. You fundimentally misunderstand pendantic.

Mob rule via LIVs is the banksters beard.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:44 | 6948939 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

I don't think the fundamental power structure in society is pedantic.  The mob does not rule.  It is a puppet of the elite for waging intra-class warfare against political opposition.  The same as it has been for thousands of years.  The fucktards in the mob not realizing they are being played is why we have one party corporatist rule today.  Little Barry, who couldn't even make partner in an irrelevant law firm in Chicago sues Citibank to give the niggers cheaper houses, then he lets Linda Green take whatever minuscule equity the fools thought they had built.  Then the mob clamors for free healthcare, and suffocates under increased taxes.  The other side is just as gullible, they clamor for an end to State propaganda masquerading as education and get "no child left behind" edumacation, and corporatist fascist Chief Justice.  Organized Labor, however, is the biggest bunch of fuckwits, they actually have a seat at the table, and in return for wielding the mob relatively successfully, they have gotten NAFTA, TPP and TTIP.  The elite rule, the mob are slaves.   

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 21:56 | 6951345 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Go take a look at Ukraine. Specificly, the bankster financed Maidan mob. SOP, except a little too obvious.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 22:31 | 6951470 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

Neither George Soros, nor Victoria Nuland is a member of the Maidan mob.  Poroshenko is a slave to his creditors, and his creditors aren't interested in distributing their wealth to the untermenshen.  Which reduces the various factions in western Ukraine to distributing table scaps to mobilize their respective mobs for political advantage.  Who gave the order to shoot?  In my experience that order has always come from a member of the political elite trying to achieve political ends, not a member of the mob.  I see no evidence that Ukraine was any different.   

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 22:56 | 6951538 conscious being
conscious being's picture

"Neither George Soros, nor Victoria Nuland is a member of the Maidan mob." Huh? What constitutes 'part of the mob'? Does picking the winners, the strategy and handing out cookies count? You're not a bankster shill are you? Nuland/Soros et.al. orchestrate the mob and use it as a tool to further the bankster cause. Surely you can figure that out? The new mob installed government, ie. From a Soros color revolution wiil for example create a central bank as part of the BIS system if such bank did not exist pre-mob. Yes or no?

One person's wealth transfer is another's subsistence bread crumbs. The mob or untermenschen as you call them get peanuts, not wealth so they are always dependent and ready to explode when necessary. What is an EBT card?

This is not hard to understand. It's at least as old as the Romans. You have heard of 'Bread and circus' haven't you?

Tue, 12/22/2015 - 00:40 | 6951650 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

No, they are not part of the mob.  They do not act for the mob's benefit.  They act for their own benefit.  The mob a tool, and a means to achieve an end.  Whether a BIS member central bank exists in Ukraine is irrelevant, the corporatist goal in Ukraine is expropriation under the guise of fighting corruption, and then resale of heavily discounted assets through corruption, same as it always is (see comments  5368754 & 5369621 since Tyler's craptastic archiving process ate a more explicit summary of Soros MO in Guinea)  Greece already has central bank that is a shareholder in the BIS, so membership cannot be the determinative motivation.    

Mob rule is ochlocracy (there actually an esoteric English word, which Ghordius could likely provide the Latin root of, hence my oversimplification above).  Plato was all for rule by philosopher kings (aka technocrats)- Krugman, Bernanke, Brzezinski, Perle, et al. would be philosopher kings in Plato's contemporary Republic.  The death of Socrates drove Plato to despise Democracy and declare it to inevitably end in ochlocracy.  However, Socrates (an oligarch and philosopher king himself) was judged guilty by jury of hundreds of Demos out of a citizenry of only a few thousands.  Paul Cartledge actually puts forth a strong argument that the conviction of Socrates was anything but mob rule, regardless of his previous incidents of offending other oligarchs.  

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:40 | 6948192 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

if republics are "easiest to corrupt" and democracies are "even easier", then tyrannies (aka absolute monarchies without religious setup) are the easiest, then you have to corrupt ony... one

the debate on this is really old, already the ancient Greeks and Persians were engaged in it, see Plato's works

the one, the few, the many. those categories denote by whom the whole is ruled... without taking the law into account

independently from that, the Rule of Law... (instead of the Rule of Men) trascends all that, aided by the concept of a constitution with a bill of rights equivalent

corruption is always present in human affairs. the question is how much. a sole supreme ruler has to fight corruption as much as an oligarchy or a People ruling supreme

meanwhile it's still a republic based on a constitution, the rule of law and democratic principles with an alert and franchised electorate that has the best chances to keep corruption in check

why? well, easy: an absolute ruler can only be at one place at the same time. similarly, oligarchs are limited, being few, by definition

is only the (co-sovereign, republican and democratic) citizen that is ubiquitous, and can remind the servant of the state, the civil servant that he is his servant, too

of course this needs the right... attitude. paired with the right knowledge, and some willingness to shoulder the workload of the whole

a properly and throughly indoctrinated consumer... is too lazy for that. and so happy to have someone else to shoulder that burden

so the whole fight about the one, the few or the many is about... citizenship. one citizen, few citizens, many citizens. it is about how many... care

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:18 | 6948219 back to basics
back to basics's picture

Do you get an orgasm posting this pseudo intellectual crap on here, because frankly I see no other reason why you'd choose this method of humiliating yourself?

p.s I bet you ejaculated all over the place when you told us all to read....Plato. LMFAO

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:34 | 6948229 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

and a good morning to you, too, "back to basics". oh, and Merry Christmas

this conversation/thread was started by "NoDebt" with "Republics are easy to corrupt", to which "StychoKiller" replied "Democracies are even easier"

so the logical counterpoint was... nothing new under the sun. then this discussion is using the very terms coined by ancient Greeks and Persians

if they were using purely American and original terms... I could understand your point. if they were talking about concepts invented in America... you'd be right

but neither "Democracy" nor "Republic" nor "Constitution" belong to the United States of America... alone

you are just... louder, more often then not "in your face" and sadly very often ignorant of your own vocabulary, politically and otherwise

but go on, since we started so well. which part of the argument did you not like, exactly?

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:55 | 6948244 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

 Plato is btw easy reading. all stories about a few blokes eating, drinking and having conversations. and some of them drinking state sponsored poison, like Socrates

some of his friends were Tyrants, as in "The Thirty Tyrants", some of them wanted to become tyrants, as one of his pupils, others were Oligarchs

and Socrates was a veteran, and witnessed how the very first well documented Democracy worked, one that was a Republic and a a commercial and military Empire, too

that's the time when Sparta was having it's Hegemony and fighting Athens, the first "helping" oligarchies and the other "helping" democracies

no, I actually expect you to read Plato. it's free, and freely available, and it's the very primary source of this conversation above, one of the earliest discussions about  all those terms

you don't have your Founding Fathers around anymore. they would disagree with you, and they would not have called it "pseudo intellectual crap"

they would have called reading Plato... going "back to basics"

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:11 | 6948552 MopWater
MopWater's picture

Plato's Republic is a very easy read...its pretty much all downhill from there, until you hit Hobbes' Leviathan, but that's just me...worst has to be Hegel's "Philosophy of Right"..

Ghordius, I think you do yourself a disservice, as Plato/Socrates (or is it Aristotle) lay out the 6 types of governments. The one, the few, and the many, and their "evil" opposites. A kingship/tyrant, Representative Government/Oligarchy, Democracy/Mob Rule. Funny, government is a perpetual cycle...though this isn't a college level political philosophy class.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:39 | 6948638 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

That's funny, I thought was more like a juvenile civics class (as in junior high school in the US system)... If they're pushing off the basics and foundation of knowledge upon which everything else rests until college, and then replacing the traditional liberal arts with basket weaving and untermenschen studies, that would explain some things.  What is the point of studying the actions of governments and history if one cannot grasp how and why they operate?  One would literally have to re-learn everything later just to have a modicum of knowledge, much less wisdom . 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:28 | 6948861 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

that's the kernel in many SF stories, having to relearn everything

btw, who am I to judge what is evil and what isn't? I prefer the bashing of corruption over the bashing of evil

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 12:00 | 6949020 sapioplex
sapioplex's picture

Bravo!  For 'corruption' is discreetly definable whilst 'evil' is not so easily pinned down.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:52 | 6948978 Dig Deeper1
Dig Deeper1's picture

Personally, I prefer Harpoon's Leviathan.  After 6-8 you will forget this whole sordid mess.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:11 | 6948554 psyclone
psyclone's picture

as are unions.

ok, just about any form of representative governance.

guess it's time to replace the ballot box with the blockchain.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:27 | 6947876 Doña K
Doña K's picture

Self implosion is the only way to end this hydra

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:31 | 6948155 Miles Ahead
Miles Ahead's picture

Finally.  A decent comment.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:13 | 6948174 August
August's picture

Remember: a lit cigarette into every trash can. Metaphorically speaking.

Let those firefighters take a break from the barbeque grill, and work for those pensions they think are heading their way.

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:50 | 6947781 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

We're not even doing empire right.  

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:02 | 6947805 jeff montanye
jeff montanye's picture

"so zealous of their own power that they actually decrease their power"  l. wilkerson

obama seems like a mole, so bad is he at his job.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:50 | 6947927 TheFutureIsThePast
TheFutureIsThePast's picture

America is the most successful empire in modern history. Its "culture" has spread throughout the world. Non-Americans might not speak English or fly the American flag, but they sure as hell know what McDonalds, Coca Cola and Mickey Mouse are.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:59 | 6948018 fudge
fudge's picture

but not all.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:49 | 6948158 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Eirik - that was awesome and true and really funny about goofing on the faked Moon landings. That was like your best post evah [ever]. Much easier to propagandize the subject populations if they can all be made to adopt the fetishes of the already captured imperial population. Much easier for the puppet master when all the puppets' strings are all hooked up the same way.

Question, are you now or have you ever been anti-Putin? [Note the accusitory similarity of the phraseology to something the late Senator Joseph McArthy would use. Just for grins.] If so, how do you reconcile Ramstein's Amerika with an anti-Putin bias? If not, never mind. Anyhow, das war wunderbar. In the meantime, back to my JaegerMeister mit eis.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:41 | 6947995 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

It will be one of the shorter lived ones too.  If we were going to be a real empire, we wouldn't have made a defense-petro-dollar treaty with the Saudis; we would have subjugated the entire Middle East and killed anybody over there who protested our rule.  I don't mean subjugate like what we did to Iraq.  No puppet governments.  Any "self rule" wouldn't be under the illusion of independence, it would be some degree of autonomy, but ultimate fealty to the Empire, or else, and everybody would know it because we said so, publicly.    We also would have rewarded those over there who were willing to cooperate with us.  We would be sucking every last ounce of oil out from them that way. We would be making it clear that people who accept the empire get the benefits of empire. 

 

We're a faux-empire. 

 

No, I don't like empire, but if you're going to do it, you had better be willing to be brutal and generous at the same time.  That is what empire is.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:59 | 6948017 fudge
fudge's picture

there's only one way out for your faux-empire now, but since you cannot subdue the planet without our entire destruction you are going to receive what you gave others.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:08 | 6948029 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

There's always more than one way out.  Unfortunately, we've taken it to the point where the nice ones are no longer an option. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:57 | 6948166 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Yeah, I don't know Fudge. Everyone else, but the Russians are pussies and the Russians just really want to be left alone with their own giant space and their own intact culture. So, no, in away unfortunately, I don't see much retribution from external parties. Now internally, retribution from internal parties, that could happen.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:48 | 6948194 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

"the Russians are pussies and the Russians just really want to be left alone with their own giant space and their own intact culture"

I don't even know where to start. bah. possibly even a good example of... projection of own wishes or something

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 08:07 | 6948268 Time for Titus
Time for Titus's picture

"Everyone else but the Russians are pussies"

I think that was what he was saying.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:11 | 6948790 conscious being
conscious being's picture

I think that is what I did say.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:45 | 6948943 Demdere
Demdere's picture

'pussies' is one-dimensinal.  Howbout we add some dimensions?  Like an estimate of what is actually possible for a leader of a country?

Suppose Merkel actually wanted to do the best for her people? (Yes, etc., but just suppose.)

If that differs from the US's view of the situation, we dump a million ME refugees on her.  Her BND doesn't bother to tell her all of its arrangement with America's NSA, so her phones are all tapped, and her cell phone has been listening in on all her meetings.

The EU's CBs answer more to America than to anyone in Europe.  Their militaries have warm relations with the US militaries, and NATO is most of their military.  We set all the internet standards, which happen to have enabled our spying over the years. All US equipment is permanently bugged.

In those positions, all of us would become resentful, so running an empire must require ever-larger pnishments and rewards, have ever-more conflicts from ever-more sources.

Basics of a less philosophical nature, it seems to me, govern our futures in addition to Plato et al.

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 21:59 | 6951357 conscious being
conscious being's picture

If Merkel was really for the German people, she would just pick up the phone and call Vlad to say she was switching sides and needs some back up.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 05:56 | 6948164 Dugald
Dugald's picture

               McDonalds, Coca Cola and Mickey Mouse

The Peak of civilisation...no less

And for the slow ones.....Yes, I am being sarcastic

or </sarc>

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:20 | 6948401 BeansMcGreens
BeansMcGreens's picture

If bruce jenner saw mickey mouse in a mcdonalds drinking a coca cola he'd probably wet his panties.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:37 | 6948231 amadeus39
amadeus39's picture

Right? For who? Some folks are doing quite well thanks to empire building.

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:00 | 6947799 Escrava Isaura
Escrava Isaura's picture

 

 

 

Once the financial empire collapses the army empire will take by force.

Just wait till Hilary take over.

Then, it will all be over.

 

“A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.”— Garrett Hardin



Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:11 | 6947829 Radical Marijuana
Radical Marijuana's picture

Which means, by definition, that the death control systems are the most important!

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:48 | 6948000 w a l k - a w a y
w a l k - a w a y's picture

Until humanity evolves to from Primitive Unconscious Procreation to Civilized Conscious Procreation nothing fundamental will change.

Parental conditioning is the greatest slavery in the world. ... because the child is the father of the man. If the child is brought up in a wrong way then the whole of humanity goes wrong. The child is the seed: if the seed itself is poisoned and corrupted by well-intentioned people, well-wishing people, then there is no hope for a free human individual.
-  Osho, "the book of children"  [chapter 3 - Conditioning]

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:26 | 6948183 new game
new game's picture

from my observations we be one generation(or less) from barbaric self destruction.

i see 62 % retrace, so take your planned parenthood stik and fuck off. it don't matter...

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:07 | 6948171 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Radical, when I was a little tyke, I had a little epiphany that went like this. In my little village, there were maybe ten different shops and a bank. Only the bank had serious physical barriers to interaction. Which gave me the conclusion that there was something about the bank that the people did not accept or appreciate and that the bank's existance had to be enforced by what you rightly call "death controls".

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:17 | 6948177 August
August's picture

Bright kid.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:14 | 6947836 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Tell that to the Muslims.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:19 | 6947852 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Naw, let Mother Nature tell them. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:16 | 6947838 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

The army empire sits atop the financial empire.  If one is toppled, the other will fall with it.  There was the post bronze age dark age, there were the dark ages that most people are familiar with, and we are staring at the beginnings of a modern dark age. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:21 | 6948180 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Dark age? For some maybe, but not for you, not for me El Vaquero. The rest of the World will rebound nicely, flourish even,  when the hedgemon takes his boot off the global collective neck.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:30 | 6948184 new game
new game's picture

then what? china style existence? eco systems determine the human fate...

look to the oceans first...

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:20 | 6948824 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Grow you're own. Or, not my thing, but get a 3D printer going. If you are self-sufficient and have access to the mass of information now available, life can be very good and free. Most people need a lot of structure. Learn to do without [it]. Find like minded, capable people. And read Walden Pond by Thoreau. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:50 | 6948968 Demdere
Demdere's picture

No.  We are on the edge of such a flowering the world has never seen.  Get the boot off humanity's neck even a little bit, and watch.

https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/the-technological-palette-...

Go explore on Youtube.  The world's culture is amazing, and the rate of expansion and change is at an all-time high, and so much is good and so much so very superior.

There is no reason to diss humanity, we are doing fine.  Our leaders are failing.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 22:01 | 6951368 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Demdere, you are really an Ok guy. If you are ever in my kneck of the woods, look me up. I'll show you what I have going.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:52 | 6948485 FreeNewEnergy
FreeNewEnergy's picture

I seriously hope you are correct, El Vaquero, because I would like to get back to the kind of world that existed when I knew nothing, when I was a kid, in the early 60s, before the MICC (Wilkerson's inclusion of "Congressional" to the standard MIC is essential and poignant) killed JFK.

Yeah, maybe America wasn't innocent and perfect, but it was miles ahead of what we have today. Anecdotally, my neighborhood, suburban Rochester (Irondequoit) was still largely a farming center. There were huge greenhouses just four doors down the street from me. And fruitstands, and kids riding bikes with no helmets, and cars without seatbelts and cops would would "give you a break" instead of "breaking your face."

Gradually, the farms were replaced with apartments, more apartments, stores, new homes, and the local government got bigger, and bigger and bigger. The town today is mostly still middle class, but the folks from the 60s and 70s have moved on. There are many more rentals, the shopping plaza that used to be all white shoppers is now 60-70% minorities, many of them on public assistance. The government is enormous. The school superintendant makes $285,000 a year, with golden pension, super health benefits, etc. The teachers make more money and have better benefits than 80% of the people they "serve."

It's all gone backwards. Our current system must come to an end, either by financial degradation (our best case) or armed conflict of private sector citizens against the "public servants." The government must be reigned in, and we must take our country back, because if we don't, there will be nothing left to salvage. We can start by opposing every school budget proposal and knocking school systems back to 1960s levels.

There will be great pain, so be on the right side. Private industry. Smaller government. Live and act without fear. It is the only way.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:23 | 6948841 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Re schools. If we are going to have to have public schools, I thought vouchers was a great idea. What's wrong with competition and choice?

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:27 | 6947877 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

You're mixing up your so-called ideologies.

You're also presuming the citizenry will stand down, and let liberty go...

you are mistaken.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:45 | 6947915 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

Some will resist.  Some already are.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:43 | 6947997 fudge
fudge's picture

the only question is will enough resist.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:46 | 6948185 conscious being
conscious being's picture

fudge, I've seen numbers that say, in the original revolution, only 3% actually took up arms. Look into Lexington and Concord. At first, the Minutemen had a hard time shooting their English RedCoat cousins, but after taking a few hits, Lexington Green,  they got the hang of it and gave it back in spades, Concord Bridge, all the way back to Cambridge.

Culpeper Minutemen flag from Viginia.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:54 | 6948987 Demdere
Demdere's picture

If we do it right, it doesn't even take many.

Sabotage is the way to go.  Quiet and clever beats shooting people.  Assymetric warfare.

If they can't run airlines, they can't run a modern  civilization and will look bad, people will laugh at their impotence.

How hard is it to stop airlines?

https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/ghandis-terrorists/

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:08 | 6947952 VegasBob
VegasBob's picture

When Hitlery takes over it will be all over.  This country won't survive one term of that bitch.

If you're in the military, and that fucking bitch is your CINC (Commander-in-Chief), you're going to have to ask yourself, "Would I take a bullet for this lying cunt?  Would I give up my life for the personal glorification of this hound of hell?"

My guess is that most of the military rank-and-file will simply muster out of the military ASAP, and their replacements will be the bulldykes who just adore Hitlery.

Do you think Mr. Putin is going to be afraid of Hitlery's bulldyke army?  I sure don't.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:00 | 6948518 J Jason Djfmam
J Jason Djfmam's picture

Hillary Clinton for TEOTWAWKI 2016!

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:12 | 6948032 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

Population growth is already zero in the most advanced countries. That is, ones with prosperous and secure economies where survival does not depend on the number of hands you have to plant rice, or the number of children you have to support you in sickness and old age. When a country reaches a certain stage of development, and goes from third world to first world status the population stops growing and starts to drop. It has happened over and over again around the world.

The only thing stopping this trend from spreading to every country in the world, are the forces of chaos and destruction now lousing everything up.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:33 | 6948227 Still Losing Money
Still Losing Money's picture

why don't you take the first step towards that zero growth and kill yourself? oh that's right, you want me to do it. hypocrite.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:29 | 6948419 STP
STP's picture

No, stupid.  We're talking about the Third World here.  Like Haiti, or Zimbabwe, or even Detroit, where low IQ people reproduce like rabbits.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:25 | 6947868 ToSoft4Truth
ToSoft4Truth's picture

Nah.  Recall before the current scenario America was an underdog.  Peeps were black-lunging it in coal mines and smelts.

The Monroe Doctrine worked.

The Containment Policy worked.

How soon we forget the wise Michael Jackson;

We are the World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9BNoNFKCBI

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:57 | 6948015 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Titanic, full steam ahead.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:01 | 6947800 The Merovingian
The Merovingian's picture

My only question is why now? Does he have a memoir coming out or is he dying of some bone wracking type of incurable cancer? Too little, too late IMHO. If this guy was really as altruistic and chest thumping good as he wishes he was, then he would have quit back in the day and laid it all out long before now. I don't trust him ....

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:21 | 6947833 algol_dog
algol_dog's picture

Good to have critical thinking skills, but just looking around yourself and what you have seen and experienced in America (the older your age, the better), as well as human nature in general. Wouldn't you say that he is more likely to be right than wrong?

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:26 | 6947870 Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf's picture

There's that and this:

Upton Sinclair — 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.'

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:38 | 6947906 rapetrain
rapetrain's picture

"The Merovingian": Focus on the message, not the messenger. The man is irrelevant. What is relevant is his message. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:23 | 6947973 . . . _ _ _ . . .
. . . _ _ _ . . .'s picture

The message is that they are destroying jobs so that more people will join the military, which would make it that much harder to form a revolutionary force.

Cyclical.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:06 | 6947949 scaleindependent
scaleindependent's picture

He has been doing this for a long time.  Lookitup!

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 04:25 | 6948122 beemasters
beemasters's picture

"Since his retirement from the public sector Wilkerson has on several occasions spoken out against what he perceives as the poor planning and execution of the Iraq War as well as the global politics leading up to and following it. In particular he has denounced the decision-making process of the Bush Administration and Vice President Dick Cheney's and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's parts in it." - Wikipedia.

I think the question was why only after retirement when he could do little? Was it to detach himself from all the fiasco?

But in all honesty, I would rather that he spoke up late rather than never. I don't care if it's for a book or clearing his conscience or any other selfish reason.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:11 | 6948380 Pickleton
Pickleton's picture

"I think the question was why only after retirement when he could do little?"

 

Soooo, you've never heard of the UCMJ?  You talk shit about your boss and you're likely to get fired and you just move on with no real effects on your career.  Those guys talk shit about the boss and it could land them in prison and it ruins their career.  Yea, you'd be eager to do that to yourself.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:56 | 6948012 Demdere
Demdere's picture

Nobody can deal with 9/11, so he has no explanation for the continuous making everything worse.

Israeli-Neocons are treasonous criminals, and this is all keeping their heads out of nooses.

https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/911-is-our-dreyfus-affair/

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:29 | 6948225 doctor10
doctor10's picture

Its easier to understand post WW II USSR and Stalin when one realizes he and his henchmen saw what was happening at Nuremburg-and dropped the Iron Curtain

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:48 | 6948059 The central planners
The central planners's picture

After watch the interview i reached to one conclusion: Abby Martin is hotter than ever we need her back on RT

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 02:57 | 6948065 Alan_F
Alan_F's picture

Never happen. Her Putin is the devil moment has been busted over and over and over... besides that, vegans don't eat crow.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 04:11 | 6948111 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

2 out of 3 ain't bad.  Abby Martin on 911 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmnMEOsuj58

Meatloaf - 2 outta 3 ain'd bad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5hWWe-ts2s :)

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:59 | 6948251 ZH Snob
ZH Snob's picture

this is what happens when gangsters take over a nation.  it is no long a democracy or a republic.  it is now a facistic oligarchy.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 10:08 | 6948486 wizteknet
wizteknet's picture

Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. is the real man petraeus democrap vote them out

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:35 | 6947757 benb
benb's picture

Better spend another trillion that doesn't exist on defense products while the country rots.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:16 | 6947839 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Don't worry, it's not really money, besides, Obama says all spendg is stimulative....unless its done by Republicans.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:25 | 6947864 benb
benb's picture

You know Trump made the statement in the last debate that we (Meaning the gov)  spent over 4 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan and we haven't got a thing to show for it. He should be driving that point home every f-ing day. That's something even the sheep can grasp.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 03:12 | 6948074 delacroix
delacroix's picture

he should know. some of his real estate ventures produced the same result, albeit on a smaller scale.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 06:59 | 6948203 conscious being
conscious being's picture

I swear, I was just saying today, "where is that benb?" A slight change to your comment, Better spend another trillion that doesn't exist on defense products that don't even work, F35 while the country rots.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:57 | 6948504 wizteknet
wizteknet's picture

Blackrock bought the store across the street

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:42 | 6948234 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

The MIC is working on concepts for 'sixth generation' fighters. Target price - $100 billion each?

Let's just skip the fifth - it is the Microsoft Bob of the aviation world.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-militarys-6th-generatio...

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:40 | 6947758 Yes We Can. But...
Yes We Can. But Lets Not.'s picture

Paula Broadwell is my idea of smoking hot.

Paula, yes we can, soon as you ditch the doc.

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:56 | 6947933 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

You have awful taste in women.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:01 | 6948206 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Funny name though. For a chica. Broadwell.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 09:36 | 6948444 Miss Expectations
Miss Expectations's picture

Paula Dean Kranz

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:37 | 6947759 max2205
max2205's picture

Fucking festering cesspool 

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 23:37 | 6947763 db51
db51's picture

She has a motor boatable set of tits...that's for sure.

 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:01 | 6947803 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Sure, but not worth your honor or the Nation.

Where is the military in defending the Constitution? 

Dicks & brains are somewhere else, apparently.  My apologies to any true Patriots.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:18 | 6947848 benb
benb's picture

"Where is the military in defending the Constitution?"

Obviously, not where they should be... I have these fantasies sometimes that loyal Americans in the military arrest the treasonous jack-ass in the WH along with the lead congressional whores and publicly try them for treason... Oh Well.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:01 | 6948208 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

if you think it's your military's job to defend your constitution... then you deserve "the military's version" of the thing

then in history, whenever a military had to... let's call it defend... a constitution alone... it became a military constitution only

it kind of works, but it isn't for civilians anymore. oh, and that "civilian" isn't an endearing term, then

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:06 | 6948213 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Maybe the right thinking milititary will just join in on the right side, once the ball gets rolling.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:14 | 6948216 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

the "right" side is the one side that wins, isn't it? the one fact about the use of force is that the winner is "right", after the conflict

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 11:28 | 6948866 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Its a moral issue Ghordius, something you would have trouble understanding.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:22 | 6947858 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

I would cringe if the military were to pull off a coup.  We're better off doing this ourselves. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:28 | 6947879 Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf's picture

"We're better off doing this ourselves."

I've been wondering about that very thing, but each potential spark of such a revolution soon cools and is forgotten. There must be something in the water.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:33 | 6947891 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Think about all of the shit that led up to the American Revolution.  What it finally took was the Brits coming to take the guns, and a shot getting fired. How many years before the Revolution was the Boston Massacre?  How long was Boston occupied by Red Coats before that shot was fired?  It took a lot of shit to get us to rebel back then, and the same is true today.  And you know what is the same today?  Those in power did not believe that it could happen until a full fledged war was in progress. 

 

I've made it clear, both publicly and anonymously to a lot of people that gun confiscation means civil war. 

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:45 | 6947998 Max Cynical
Max Cynical's picture

Imagine multiple terrorist attacks across the country at once and the govs response...gun confiscation.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 07:09 | 6948215 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Good luck.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 00:31 | 6947884 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

The volunteer Army is manned by citizens who have no better financial option in life than the military. It is comprised of low income, poorly educated whites and urban blacks. White trash and ghetto blacks. That's why the military is not "defending the Constitution" They have never read it.

Mon, 12/21/2015 - 01:00 | 6947943 Uchtdorf
Uchtdorf's picture

I upvoted you, but let me refine your comments a bit. My 2nd son, against my advice, joined the Marines. He is 3 years in to a 4 year commitment. I was never in the military so he was not following in his father's footsteps. He did grow up hearing his father speak with reverence about the Constitution. He is caucasian and is not of low income, nor poorly educated, so generalizations like yours do not always hold true. Sometimes children, upon reaching adulthood, do not listen to their parents. That's my son's case.

Even though I strongly opposed him joining the Marines, am I proud of him? Button-bustingly so. Fortunately, his MOS is not infantry. My prayer is that he will not be drawn into the mess that the Nobel Peace Prize winner would submit his mates to.

That 170 pound boy of mine who went away to San Diego for boot camp now weighs 205. He has gained some muscles and some skills that make me glad he is on our team, should the time come. Please don't think of him as white trash.

One other thing: I noticed when I attended his boot camp graduation in San Diego that there are many hispanics in the Marines. If a recruit lives west of the Mississippi, they go to San Diego. There were lots of Marines from Texas (our state) and Cali, both of which have considerable hispanic populations.

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