Posts Tagged ‘states’

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.

 

 

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.

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…)

US Censorship Hypocrisy

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

Figurehead of America’s 2-party dictatorship, President Barack Obama, announced plans today to impose sanctions against any regime caught stifling protests by blocking Internet access. That is, any regime except their own. (more…)

Corporations Against Corporatism

Thursday, April 12th, 2012

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a massive right-wing lobbyist group which fosters the collusion between global corporations and state politicians to vote behind closed doors, rewriting state laws that govern all Americans. (more…)

“Because we are at war…”

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

“We are at war.” “This is a war here.” “Our country is at war.”

How many times have we heard these words, most often uttered by someone trying and justify the unjustifiable, like sacrificing liberty for the illusion of security, or giving away inch after inch of precious power for the sake of the nation’s interests – not to be confused with our own interests.

If you’re like me, then you’re sick of hearing this wartime pretense being used to co-opt  both common sense and human rights alike.

We are at war… with who? Your only enemies are the ones you keep creating through your actions. Preemptive war only proliferates ideas of hate, and you can’t kill an idea no matter how hard you fight.

This is a war… no it isn’t! If you truly want to strike a critical blow against terror, stop terrorizing people. Quit believing that you are in a war. Withdraw from that mindset… then withdraw from the battlefields.

Awaken to our new world. It’s no longer about fighting religions, countries or cultures. The threats we do face, we face as a species. Cooperation, not infighting, is the way forward.

Support for Afghan War has Expired

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

When it comes to the ongoing war in Afghanistan, the United States is doing the wrong thing. At least, they are according to more than 2/3rds of all Americans.

A recent New York Times/CBS News poll shows disillusionment about the decade long quagmire has reached an all time high, with more and more people demanding the withdrawal come soon than later.

This poll adds to the growing body of dissenters who’ve had a change of heart, saying the war in Afghanistan is lost and needs to be abandoned ASAP.

Now, if these same people were to stand up the next time the US tries to invade some other poor country, then we’d be getting somewhere.

Cutting Out the Corruption – Lessig

Friday, March 16th, 2012

Institutional corruption runs rampant throughout American politics. This is especially true in Congress, where members spend 30-70% of their time raising money for their next re-election.

The tiniest slice of Americans – 0.0000063% – fund the vast majority of campaign costs. THIS IS CORRUPTION! It’s a corruption of dependency, as elected officials depend on special, elite interests well above those of the people they represent.

This corruption needs to be removed for democracy to be reclaimed. And the only way this can be done is with an upheaval to the entire system, making it so that the power to select leaders is distributed equally across the population. (more…)

US to Canada: Don’t Repeat Our Mistake on Drug War

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Take it from us, the war on drugs has been a “costly failure.” This stark warning comes from a high-profile group of current and former U.S. law enforcement officials in a letter pleading with the Harper government to reconsider their tough stance on drugs.

“We are … extremely concerned that Canada is implementing mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for minor marijuana-related offences similar to those that have been such costly failures in the United States,” the letter reads. “These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety.” (more…)