2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThere is an underlying evil lurking on this forum. How can some of you support...
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Goblinmonger (a host of the 2016 Postmortem forum).
...a continuation of the status quo? How can some of you support oligarchy?
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mythology
(9,527 posts)Clinton doesn't curb stomp kittens
randome
(34,845 posts)![](https://cdn.meme.am/instances/65135345.jpg)
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]
That's bold evil, creeping evil is her disdainful chuckle and loving pronouncements of death to "our" enemies. Evil is thinking that picking a kinder devil is picking an angel.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Dem2
(8,168 posts)Sorry, I don't coddle dictators.
Trust Buster
(7,299 posts)LexVegas
(6,261 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)"Money trumps peace." -- Pretzeldent George W Bush, AWOL
jmg257
(11,996 posts)"In War Is A Racket (1935), Butler points to a variety of examples, mostly from World War I, where industrialists, whose operations were subsidised by public funding, were able to generate substantial profits, making money from mass human suffering.
It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war. The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labour before the nation's manhood can be conscripted.
Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our steel companies and our munitions makers and our ship-builders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Thanks for grokking, jmg257!
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.
It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.
I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
-- Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.
SOURCE: http://fas.org/man/smedley.htm
Read the good general's book, "War is a Racket," courtesy of Ratical: http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
Here's a bit about the coup:
by Jules Archer
Hawthorn Books: New York
244 pp.
Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940) blew the whistle on the little- known plot of the title. He was on public television the fall of 1993 in "The Road to Rock Bottom"--Part 2 of The Great Depression series (Blackside production). Near the end it shows Butler in shirtsleeves, urging on 10,000 of the war veterans who had marched to Washington and camped in Anacostia DC. It was July 1932. The Bonus Army asked for early payment of moneys promised for 1945. "Some were the same men who had fought under Smedley Butler in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines campaign, the Boxer Rebellion, ...Caribbean interventions, the Chinese intervention of 1927-8, and World War I" (p 3).
Butler, a major general at 48, retired from the Marine Corps in 1931. He had faced gunfire 120 times. Columnist Will Rogers wrote of Butler, "He is what I would call a natural born warrior. He will fight anybody, any time....He carries every medal we ever gave out. He has two Congressional Medals of Honor....You give him another war and he will get him another one....I do admire him" (p 116).
Except the two years in China, Butler spent the last third of his service in police work and administration. During this time a disillusion with war spread through Europe and America. The mood fed on books like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and MERCHANTS OF DEATH.
August 21, 1931, Butler spoke to an American Legion convention in New Britain CT. Looking back, he reflected on his career. His remarks stunned the audience. Few papers dared report even part of the speech:
"I spent 33 years...being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism....
"I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street....
"In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested....I had...a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions....I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents..." (p 118).
CONTINUED...
http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/reviews/wharton_plot.html
The story of how Gen Smedley Butler exposed an American Fascist conspiracy to overthrow FDR NEVER GETS MENTIONED in the contemporary college curriculum or what passes for journalism, nor historic context on the nightly news, either.
And that is a shame.
Those Democrats -- and pukes and pindependents -- who give a damn about democracy will see that his story is told, which is why DU is so important. This place spreads the Truth about the fascist bastards, whose sons and grandsons, and those of their cronies continue to haunt America.
To those who stand in the way of its message: Go to hell.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)in the entire history of the universe.
Stuckinthebush
(10,935 posts)![](/emoticons/rofl.gif)
Thank you!
hack89
(39,171 posts)I can't wait for the primaries to be over and the burning stupidity to end. It is like Bernie has short circuited people's ability to reason.
Stuckinthebush
(10,935 posts)I'm sure there is some psychological theory that explains it. It is easier to support a candidate if you feel he or she is the white knight out to vanquish evil, I guess.
We see this every primary. When Sanders concedes and supports Hillary - which he will - then we will see healing begin and delusions of evil subside.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Why do you support baby-hating, Sanders supporters?
Stuckinthebush
(10,935 posts)It distresses me so.
casperthegm
(643 posts)Win or lose this primary nomination, supporters of Bernie Sanders are not going away. This is bigger than one man running for President. We either get the Democratic Party to move back to the left and embrace what it should be; no fracking, no regime change policies, no bad trade deals, no Citizens United, healthcare for all, and regulate Wall Street, just to name a few.
If the party refuses to return to what it should be then I see it as the party leaving us, not us leaving the party. And then it will be time for a new party. It's drastic, and I hope it doesn't come to that. But we can no longer tolerate a party that answers to Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.
splat
(2,301 posts)Then it intends to move left. (Letting Bernie voice that was the clue.)
But the party has historically lost with the left msg (cf. McGovern et al). Win, and you can govern from the left.
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)I left DU for a long time in 2012 because this place was overrun with right wingers.
Good to see Bernie's run bringing out the lefties again.
splat
(2,301 posts)You should submit that sentence to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, "a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. "
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
BernieforPres2016
(3,017 posts)And if so, are there any entries?
splat
(2,301 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)They've published a couple books, I think, of the winners. Fun reading.
Sid
antigop
(12,778 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)GO Bernie!!
Tarc
(10,492 posts)There's not that much of a difference between the two on most issues, despite the desperate caterwauling of the Sanders crew to the contrary. I prefer Hillary, but it isn't by a Grand Canyon sized margin.
We're all on the same side here, and there is a canyon-sized difference between 1/1A and the -100 on the GOP side.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)You have lost it.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)![](http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/SidDithers/wut.jpg)
Sid
DeGreg
(72 posts)Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)I don't get how the party can stubbornly push a nominee who is under FBI investigation. It's equal to, if not worse than, the Nixon era -- and they were Repubs!
How far we Dems have fallen under the Third Way!
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)auntpurl
(4,311 posts)What are you even saying???
Punkingal
(9,522 posts)I'm frustrated like you are, but I think a different word choice is in order.
Onlooker
(5,636 posts)If Hillary wins the General Election, than Sanders and Trump supporters may unite. If Sanders wins, we'll see the same thing that happened to Obama. Obama won, the movement got co-opted, and in both 2010 and 2014 only 20% of millennials bothered to vote (54-43% Democratic), which led to the demise of the Obama movement.
If you want a political revolution, hope that Hillary wins and that the Trump and Sanders supporters create a powerful social movement.
firebrand80
(2,760 posts)sufrommich
(22,871 posts)FSogol
(45,799 posts)![](/emoticons/facepalm.gif)
snooper2
(30,151 posts)With each State voting, it gets closer , and CLOSER AND CLOSER TO REARING IT'S UGLY HEAD!
WE MUST STOP THE EVIL!
Tanuki
(14,992 posts)![](/emoticons/teacher.gif)
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)It's mentally lazy to assign the status of evil to a demographic simply because they choose candidate A over candidate B. No doubt, you're an intelligent individual. but you're allowing your biases to cloud critical thought.
It's an irrational ideal which is little more than self-validating nonsense. Little early in the day to jump the shark, but hey-- whatever we can do to get the attention we crave.