Posts Tagged ‘america’

Drive-By Politics

Friday, April 5th, 2013

This week the US passed an emergency bill to avert the looming threat of sequestration. Tucked away in the 500+ page bill were several last-minute additions, one which dealt a pre-emptive strike against anti-gun legislation,  the other – dubbed the Monsanto bill – worked to limit restrictions on GMOs. These secretive laws were penned anonymously from behind closed doors unbeknownst to most of the senators who signed the bill into law.

A handful of politicians/corporate shills sneaking through undesirable laws, hidden by the fog of an urgent bill which was only made into an emergency by the institutionalized ineptitude known as the US political system.

Here in Canada, we face a similar tact by the conservative party. They take all their new laws and roll them up into a giant turd called an omnibus bill. By slow-feeding the media key talking points and ensuring all their party is on board, they get this growing ball rolling, gaining momentum up to the point when the deadline nears. Then, even though people will point out the many pieces of crap legislation being passed through without due discussion, the whole thing is moving with such inertia that no one is able to stop it lest they be covered in shit.

It’s ridiculous. This isn’t democracy. At least not as good as democracy can get. In the age of the Internet and social media, governance could be so much more than it is today. We could have way more transparency. Way more accountability.

The sad part is, every time government makes some baloney move that chips away at our individual freedoms and it goes by without an uproar from we the public, they gain power while we lose it.

And our silence is all the consent they need.

 

 

Crashing America’s Military Drones

Friday, February 8th, 2013

3500 humans have been snuffed out since 2004 by unmanned US aircraft. Many of these were innocent civilians (children included) caught in the cross-hairs of a war machine run amok.

Even though Americans will not be made safer by manufacturing new generations of people to hate them, their government insists upon expanding the militarized drone program. They see it as the future of warfare – it’s faster, cheaper and offers less short-term risks than a boots on the ground war.

The US Defense Department doesn’t care that the program wont make Americans safer, for that’s not actually their objective. Instead, they work to protect their own job security, and the millions employed in their death-dealing business. Stir up the hornets nest, keep poking those bears. Anything to conjure up some fright-inducing yet easily subdued foes to scare up the US population. This way the billions and billions of taxpayer dollars keep rolling in while the war-profiteers can stay fat and happy atop the growing pile of bodies.

The ruling class of America don’t want any wars to stop, and drones offer a new frontier of ongoing bloodshed. Just watch the video above, as protesters expose the suffering inflicted upon fellow humans… the rest of the attendees kept their heads down, in silent shame.

You shouldn’t be able to just kill people with no due process – not on any just and civilized planet. They know it’s wrong, but they do it anyway. That’s why there is so much secrecy surrounding the drone program.

Were too many Americans to find out what their government is doing – engaging in long distance mass murder –  the outpourings of dissent might overcome the corrupting influence of an entrenched military industry. Then they will have no choice but to stop cease their crimes against humanity, and peace will gain a stronger foothold over our planet.

While this may be bad for those whose livelihoods depend upon ongoing conflicts, for the rest of us it will be awesome. So let’s keep working to make it happen. Be involved in the movement. Keep spreading awareness about the drone program and give support to others who do the same.

Wars have been on the decline for centuries. A few more years, with enough people involved, war as we know it will be done away with for good.

Why Aren’t Americans Ending War?

Sunday, January 20th, 2013

Americans spend trillions of dollars on warfare every single year. This is an absurd amount of money to spend on anything, let alone using it to blow up your fellow humans on an industrialized scale. With that kind of cash, you could end extreme poverty the world over, give every person a home and an education, and dramatically lift the tide which raises all ships.

Ask the average person in America, and they would tell you they want the fighting to stop. The barely-adult people sent overseas to kill or be killed would sure as shit rather be home with their families and friends. And the people in Yemen and Pakistan? I imagine they could stand fewer innocents being killed by drone assassination.

The financial costs are an incredible burden, and the emotional scars would take generations to heal even if war ended this very second. The longer these large scale conflicts get prolonged, the worse off our entire world is.

So why aren’t Americans ending war? If the US people, much like the rest of us, just want to live and prosper in peace, why don’t their politicians listen to them and give them what they want?

The sad truth is that they can’t.

The entire American system has, to the detriment of the world, fallen victim to what can only be described as a parasitic entity, a beast that has been around in one form or another for thousands of years.

Whether through anesthetizing concepts like pride and security, the unfettered power of wealth, or, when all else fails, brute force, the war machine of which I speak has been able to keep countless populations within their grasp – and right now their prey is the American public.

In the United States, mainstream newsanchors all dance around the issue ending war, and ‘radical’ concepts like bringing home the troops rarely arise. Politicians are no better, for they too are in the pockets of the military industry, as made evident by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate who intentionally escalates wars around the world.

So even when the vast majority of Americans want peace, a political system which is mostly theatre combined with a deliberate lack of guidance from the media makes it hard for the anti-war movement to gain the momentum needed to make a significant impact.

But peace-loving Americans won’t stay down for much longer. They simply cannot. Fueled by a crumbling economy, driven by global awareness, and united by social media, a multi-million person strong movement will prove more powerful than the entire military industrial complex. Or so we shall hope.

The world is changing faster than even those who sit atop can control. Unprecedented technology is causing new concepts like transparency and global solidarity to crash down on our world. As the old guard falls away, a newfound democracy is sure to bring to fruition the civilization our species has been cultivating for eons.

American Drone Strikes Found to be Illegal and Ineffectual

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

A recent Stanford/NYU Law study analyses the United State’s growing reliance on unmanned aircraft as remote executioners, and they’ve found out what many of us already know: the use of drone strikes needs to be halted immediately.

Interviewing 130 people in Pakistan about their personal experiences with U.S.-led drone attacks – 69 of which had either survived or lost family to a strike attack – the report builds on findings by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which counted ‘474 to 884 civilian deaths since 2004, including 176 children’ while ‘only about 2% of drone casualties are top militant leaders.

The report also shows that American UAV attacks violate international law, making them illegal war crimes. Obama is now complicit in human rights violations and should stand trial alongside the Bush Administration.

Furthermore, the team found drone strikes to be ineffectual  and counter-productive, stating: ‘Evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks. One major study shows that 74% of Pakistanis now consider the U.S. an enemy.’

So that settles it, right? No more need to prolong the injustice. Tell everyone you know about how wrong drone strikes are, and together we can finally put an end to long distance murder.

Hey America, Aren’t You Sick of War Yet?

Monday, June 18th, 2012

Hey America!

Aren’t you sick of war yet? Haven’t you grown tired of the defense sector increasingly siphoning your precious lifeblood, this swollen and diseased parasite latched on to your once great nation’s face?

Sure, the Military Industrial Complex offers up an anesthetic. Concepts like honor, bravery, nationality, and freedom numb the pain for some and blind the truth for others. But in the end, humanity endures no suffering more intense than that caused by war.

War inflicts such a staggering emotional and financial toll on society that you’d think these massive ongoing fights are imperative, but they are not. The world is ready for peace. Yet perpetual armed conflict, the trillion dollar business it is, permits a handful of powerful corporations to pull political puppet strings, pushing military spending to unprecedented heights.

If you are indeed sick of war, as you should very well be, rest assured you are not alone. Most Americans are ready for their troops to come home and for the fighting to stop. But they are waiting. Waiting for government to decide to cease fighting, or counting on the mainstream media to declare wars to be over. But that will never happen on its own.

Instead it is up to you, dear Americans, just as it is the responsibility of every citizen of earth, to stand up against the empire of war and say NO MORE! WE ARE THROUGH FIGHTING OURSELVES! YOU HEAR US? WAR IS OVER!

Doing this in greater and greater numbers will erode the war machine from within. And not long after that, the peace which has been culminating for centuries will finally be set free to envelop the planet.

Americans Want Wars to End, Congress Not Listening

Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

A consensus has been building within the American population: the vast majority of them want less war and they especially wish the invasion of Afghanistan was already over.

However, in a recent vote of 303-113, US Congress decided to prolong the occupation of Afghanistan through 2014. If the United States is supposed to be a representative republic, who the hell is Congress trying to represent? Certainly not the people.

Instead, Congress, much like the rest of America’s two-party dictatorship, caters to whoever holds the most sway. Which in this case are corporations entrenched within the war industry, flourishing off the massive military endeavors they pay Congress to authorize.

This charade cannot continue for much longer. The American people, much like the world’s people, are awakening to a new reality.

Corporations may be able to buy most of the US’ political spectrum, but there is still something money cannot buy: the power that comes from millions of pissed off humans coordinated into action.

We saw it in Egypt. We see it with Occupy. And, at this very moment, it is happening in Quebec. Regular people are the new power, all we need is an effective way to work together in large numbers.

Soon, enough Americans will realize that wars are killing their own country and they’ll accept that their government has failed them. Using the same tools as those in Egypt and Montreal, they will rise up in opposition the Military Industrial Complex, growing in size and strength until peace ultimately prevails.

Most Americans Want Less Military

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Awesome news!  A significant majority of Americans – more than 3 in 4 – expect to see cuts in military spending. Finally, the parasitic war machine has siphoned out so much lifeblood that an anemic US populace is just begging for relief.

And, were the United States a functioning democracy, the budget would actually change to reflect the will of the American people.

But it won’t. Not until after the revolution. (more…)

Poor Helpless Israel, Here’s Another Billion – U.S.

Monday, May 7th, 2012

At a time when most Americans are facing a struggling economy, rampant unemployment and record deficits, the US government somehow allocated a billion dollars to help Israel build an impregnable ‘Iron Dome’.

Despite how detached it may seem, this isn’t private funds. If you pay taxes in the United States, this is your money. Or, rather,  it was. (more…)

How America Went Rogue – Juan Cole

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

The United States has a long history of covert actions, like the countless times they tried and failed to assassinate Fidel Castro, or the numerous democracies they toppled in order to prop up US-friendly dictators.

However, such clandestine operations used to fulfill just a fraction of America’s overall military endeavors. But now, as Professor Juan Cole details in his latest article, these secret missions have moved from being “a relatively minor arrow in the national security quiver to being the cutting edge of American power.” (more…)

Worth Watching: Wells Fargo Furthers For-Profit Prisons

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

Here’s a solid video making a nice follow up to yesterday’s post about the prison problems in Canada.

Wells Fargo, the too-big-to-fail entity bailed out by taxpayers only to give CEO’s ridiculous bonuses, is the primary investor in for-profit prisons across America. (more…)