SOB - Subversive on Board

We are the dead…

 

… and the corporations heard the voices.  “Come over to the dark side…”

 

The rise of fascism in Europe is a tale heard over and over again.  And yet, the role of corporations in this whole dismal affair is glossed over and whitewashed.  Just as you are supposed to believe “what’s good for business is good for America”, you’re supposed to think corporations had nothing to do with fascism.

 

But in the 1930s, fascism was “what’s good for business”.  And it wasn’t good for America.

 

The attempted fascist coup in the United States had failed, but that was no reason to stop trying.  After all, the League of Nations, ineffective as it was in stopping the Spanish Civil War, the invasion of Ethiopia, and the march of fascism and communism, was still (barely) intact, as was the banking and industrial systems.  So the industrialists started heavy financial and industrial support of their dark-haired boy in Berlin, because this boy COULD be a winner…

 

"A clique of U.S. industrialists is hell-bent to bring a fascist state to supplant our democratic government and is working closely with the fascist regime in Germany and Italy. I have had plenty of opportunity in my post in Berlin to witness how close some of our American ruling families are to the Nazi regime. ... Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there." -- William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937.

 

Hitler was not a complete madman initially.  He and his coterie were quite gifted in manipulation and in getting what they wanted.  Often, that coincided with what the corporatists wanted.  It was a marriage made in… well, somewhere else than heaven… but devastated Germany and her allies quickly became world powers with an impressive industrial and economic power base, courtesy of her “friends”.  He took control of Germany through strongman tactics and political bullying. And, as Chancellor, he enacted laws which would permit him to secure even more power, most of it passed without serious opposition, and always “for the good of the nation”.  He wrote his own legal justification for every abuse of power he performed, and the citizens of Germany were beguiled:

 

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal" -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

But Hitler succumbed to madness, and started making fatal errors in judgment.  With the crash of the League of Nations due to the impending war, Hitler was becoming a liability.

 

The corporatists were ready for that eventuality… and ready to make profit.  Industry geared up to make material that would never last: the perfect scenario, production making profit but no durable goods, production that would be gone in a fraction of a second, making replacement necessary.  Life was good, profit rolling in.  And it took us years to bring down the industrial machine that outside money and industry had created for Germany.

 

"These companies, not the lunatic Nazi fanatics, are the main war criminals. If the guilt of these criminals is not brought to daylight and if they are not punished, they will pose a much greater threat to the future peace of the world than Hitler if he were still alive." -- Telford Taylor, US-Chief Prosecutor, 1947 Nuremberg War Trial against the managers of IG Farben.

 

But the “New World Order” wasn’t dead yet.  In June 1942, this article was posted in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

 

"Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles tonight called for the early creation of an international organization of anti-Axis nations to control the world during the period between the armistice at the end of the present war and the setting up of a new world order on a permanent basis."

 

With that call, a new world organization was in the planning:

 

"The planning of UN can be traced to the 'secret steering committee' established by Secretary [of State Cordell] Hull in January 1943. All of the members of this secret committee, with the exception of Hull, a Tennessee politician, were members of the Council on Foreign Relations. They saw Hull regularly to plan, select, and guide the labors of the [State] Department's Advisory Committee. It was, in effect, the coordinating agency for all the State Department's postwar planning." Professors Laurence H. Shoup and William Minter, writing in their study of the CFR, "Imperial Brain Trust: The CFR and United States Foreign Policy." (Monthly Review Press, 1977).

 

Thus, by the time the Axis threat was defeated, a new plan had been established.

 

There was much rejoicing in streets all over the world on the days that, first, Germany, then Japan, finally surrendered.  Mankind hoped that we had finally gotten it right, that there would be peace and prosperity.  While in the dark corners, it was realized where the plan had gone wrong.  They had set up a fascist government, but left the government side run by the charismatic leader call the shots.  That mistake would not be made again.  Plus, they had learned a lot of new techniques that had worked which would come in handy…

 

With the end of the war came new horrors to scare the people with: concentration camps, firebombings, and ultimately, nuclear holocaust.  This time, the calls for world government could be coupled to an Armageddon scenario.  “End of the World”.  For your protection, we must assume control… 

 

So they set in place something else happened that boded ill for the future.  Having just seen the highly profitable marriage of finance, industry and the military, a new fascist coup may not be necessary.  With large sums of money, they could simply buy their way into Washington.  Coupled with the large standing army (another danger our Founding Fathers had warned to avoid) formed to fend off the threat from our former “ally”, they could wield power without the messy and potentially alarming consequences of an open coup. 

 

This was the beginning of the modern Military / Industrial Complex.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

So, have you considered the implications of the question in the last installment? 

 

OK, I know… perhaps those people who hired General Smedley Butler to do, as he puts it…

 

"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 1914. 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 Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street." -- General Smedley D. Butler, former U.S. Marine Commandant. In "Common Sense," November 1935.

 

PERHAPS World War I gave them a change of heart…????

 

I doubt it... because history after that doesn’t give that impression!

 

While the League of Nations is set up, business churns on.  The post-war era is one of flappers, dancing, frivolity, loose credit.  After the grim spectre of the war, lets have some FUN!  So business and bankers fuel the “Roaring 20’s”.

 

What was roaring was the sound of the beasts about to take over.

 

All of this easy money would soon give way to having to pay the piper, and by the late 1920’s, business had peaked.  Then the Federal Reserve, in fear that inflation could run amok, raised interest rates and tightened the money situation.  A little too much.  What resulted was the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.  Thus, it was the bankers themselves who helped cause the Depression.  I wonder if that could happen today?  Subprime lending, easy money, real estate overpricing… naaah!  They wouldn’t do THAT again… would they?  (The answer may be below)

 

Many working Americans were devastated, especially the farmers who had their lands foreclosed on.  Others lost their "wealth" from their free-spending ways.  Some, like my great-grandfather, lost theirs trying to bail out others.  Come election time, the people wanted a change.  So they voted for FDR.

 

Franklin Roosevelt scared the bejeebus out of the corporatists.  His plans like the New Deal threatened their profits.  And he knew what the corporations could do and were doing…

 

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling power. Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (One Thousand Americans, George Seldes, page 5.)

 

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson." -- In a letter written to Col. E. Mandell House on 21 November 1933.

 

This man was a direct threat to the corporatists, so, these peace loving industrialists decided to contact their old friend General Butler and have the General and some of his veteran friends make a trip to Washington to make FDR “see reason”.  Yes, we almost had our own fascist revolt.  You seldom see mention of THAT in the history books: I know I sure didn’t, and I always liked history in high school.  I even won an award in Social Studies and took Advanced American History at West Point.  Not once did I hear about it.

 

Luckily, General Butler was a man of honor and integrity.  The Marine Corps does well to honor such a man!  So the fascist threat was averted here.  Too bad it fared far better overseas.

 

But not everyone was involved in the plot… some people were actually astute enough to profit from the New Deal.  An author by the name of Eustace Mullins writes:

 

"As soon as Mr. Roosevelt took office, the Federal Reserve began to buy government securities at the rate of ten million dollars a week for 10 weeks, and created one hundred million dollars in new [checkbook] currency, which alleviated the critical famine of money and credit, and the factories started hiring people again."

 

The nation sank further into debt to the Federal Reserve system.  Who made out from the deal?  Ms. Mullins identifies them as well…

 

"...the increase in the assets of the Federal Reserve banks from 143 million dollars in 1913 to 45 billion dollars in 1949 went directly to the private stockholders of the [federal reserve] banks."

 

As if we didn’t already know…

 

Well, as I said previously, we weren’t the only people suffering.  Europe was hard hit as well, especially Germany, which was still stinging from the punishments of the Versailles Treaty.  And from the ashes rose a would be savior, darling of industry, champion against Communism and terror, to set Germany back on the right path, to make up for her defeat in WWI, to bring the right-thinking German people to their destiny to lead the world… cue the DEUTCHLAND UBER ALLES… (jeez, does this stuff sound FAMILIAR???)

 

I know… there’s going to be howler monkeys screeching, baboons babooning, and all sorts of mayhem and vile curses thrown, because I’m going to state the truth of the matter.

 

The corporations loved Adolph Hitler…

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I had to take a wee break... send my son back to the ex (always depressing, he's growing up way too fast!), a lot of depressing stuff in the news, and, quite frankly, I hear very little comment on all of this.  I know I'm not a real regular writer, so that's a problem... and I went with a no-frills type of blog (I DO try to practice what I preach about materialism... the computer I'm using is a Windows 98 dinosaur that I've kept running!)  So sometimes I wonder if its worth it.

And then, I do sometimes get a reply.  Even a good comment!  So that makes up for it all.  I'll have to shake this funk and get back to business.  Oh, and to that commenter... Thanks!  I do try to give something to mull over.  I'm always glad to be of service! I hope you have a good day!

So, it looks like we're getting a pretty impressive fruitcake, doesn't it?  The nuts are getting packed in here…

 

World War I came as a shock to the normal person’s psyche.  So much mechanized death and destruction: machine guns, tanks, flamethrowers, poison gases.  The horrors the world had just seen were absolutely numbing.

Now we get into the thick muck.  Because post-World War I is where things really start to pick up. Why? Well, maybe the Bolshevik revolution scared the bejeebus out of the corporatists.  After all, "Thou shalt not steal, the government hates competition".  Same principle?  Or was it the horror of the "war to end all wars"?  Well, for some of us... profit never sleeps! There were people who (pardon the expression) made a killing from the misery.  Whatever the case, things start getting interesting.

 

Those who wanted a higher power on the planet other than a God set off in full stride.  “We need an international body to control this…” and Mr. Wilson, the President who gave us the Federal Reserve, created the League of Nations.  Yeah, I know, it was supposed to insure peace: a noble thought after all the carnage.  But the best intentions sometimes create the worst nightmares. Interestingly enough, the backers of the plan are the bankers! 

Remember the Federal Reserve?  Well, Paul Warburg, one of the founders of the Federal Reserve, next founded an organization whose sole purpose is to promote a single world government. Which group is this?  The Council on Foreign Relations (I'll call it CFR for short). When the League of Nations collapsed, their members helped create the United Nations. Look at every single person who has promoted a "New World Order" or who backs multinationalism, and you'll see their name on the CFR rolls.  And, curiously enough, there's people in BOTH the mainstream political parties in it! So, if there's members from both parties in it, and they're trying to promote a single world order, one governing body... doesn't it make sense WHY both parties see each other as promoting a world government.  THEY ARE!

 

A professor of history at Georgetown University, Carroll Quigley, wrote in his book "Tragedy and Hope":

 

    "The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England ... (and) ... believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established.”

But don't take our word for it: lets hear it from the CFRs own mouths!

 

"We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent." – James Paul Warburg, Statement before the United States Senate on 7 February 1950.

 

“The New World Order will be built… an end run on national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece will accomplish much more than the old fashioned frontal assault.” -- Council on Foreign Relations Journal 1974, p. 558.

 

    "We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National autodetermination practiced in past centuries" -- David Rockefeller, Address to a Trilateral Commission meeting at Baden Baden, Germany in June 1991

 

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order." -- David Rockefeller

 

"...somebody has to take governments' place, and business seems to me to be a logical entity to do it." -- David Rockefeller, Newsweek International, 1 February 1999.

 

Note the recent quotes by the former chairman of the CFR?  They’re still working at putting this through!  THIS is a part of the “conspiracy” many people have raised concern over!

 

So what does this mean?  Well, it means that all of the “good Americans” who go ballistic over the “Communist World Conspiracy” and the “Anti-Christ’s World Government”, yet support multinationalism and corporatism, are accomplices in the establishment of a WORLD GOVERNMENT.  The question then becomes: is this the world government which many prophets have expressed concern over?  Is this, in fact, the evil government which we have been warned about?

Think very carefully on the implications of those questions, for freedom may depend on them!

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

In the first part, we saw how Jefferson, Jackson, and even old Abe Lincoln were "conspiracy nuts".  Now lets add a few more nuts to the fruitcake...

To set up the conditions for takeover took time, but an "immortal" being like a corporation has plenty of that.  Time and money. 

The 14th Amendment, put in place to protect freed slaves, became the first law corrupted.  In Section 1, it states:

All persons BORN OR NATURALIZED (emphasis mine) in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.  No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protections of the law.

Note it talks about "persons born or naturalized"?  The corporate lawyers, in conjunction with activist judges who sided with the corporations, worked over a period of years crafting legal precedence which gave corporations, a “legally constructed person" (though a bastard child, for to which parents are a corporation "born"?), every right given to (and more than) a human person.  This constructed an environment more to corporate liking, one where they held the reins of government under the guise of the legal "person", even though it has no life.  Seems, though, that since states grant the charters of incorporation, they are making legal documents which abridge the privileges or immunities of "citizens of the United States", the people the corporations are overriding!

 

This was the era of the “gilded age”, of robber barons, child labor, worker abuses you know, the “good old days”, to Corporate thinking.

By the turn of the century, the warnings were getting more urgent...

 

"Behind the visible government there is an invisible government upon the throne that owes the people no loyalty and recognizes no responsibility. To destroy this invisible government, to undo the ungodly union between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the task of a statesman."  --  Teddy Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, during his 1912 election campaign.

 

The year of 1913 became a critical one in that the most egregious corporate takeover of a government function, namely the minting of money, was made.  That year, during a Christmas recess when most of the Congress was home for the holidays, a session of Congress was held that gave the Federal Reserve, not a federal agency but a consortium of banks, the right to print money.  Jefferson's warning had been ignored.  Also in that year, the 16th Amendment was proposed, but improperly ratified. 

 

Why is that important?  Because this is the "basis" for your income tax!  You may have heard the old saw this is a "progressive tax", made to "redistribute wealth".  Partially true… because not a dime of it goes to public schools (local taxes), public safety (same), unemployment (your wages, with a corporate component), or anything else you would think our societal dues should go to. It goes to paying the INTEREST on the money borrowed from the Federal Reserve!  So yes, it does redistribute wealth... from your pocket to the bankers of the Federal Reserve and their corporate borrowers! 

In the year of 1916, in the form of the court case Dodge v. Ford, another milestone of the corporate takeover of the United States was achieved.  You see, Old Henry Ford thought it only fair that his workers be paid enough to be able to buy what they made.  An enlightened thought, and one that foresaw the rise of the middle class.  But two of his investors, the Dodge brothers, didn't hold truck with that theory; they wanted the profits to make THEM money.  So they took Henry to court... and the court declared that corporations have only one lawful objective, to pursue profit for the investors.  No other consideration, ethical, social, or moral, holds sway.  Need highways?  Get the public to pay for them!  Got waste?  Let the public have it!  Not enough profit?  Give the workers less, and work them more!

Now you know why I never have, and never will, own a Dodge!  The Dodge Brothers’ little enterprise can *ahem* RAM IT!

 

 "We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both."  --   Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939.

 

Well, along about this time came a mother of an industrial opportunity, World War I.  So the corporations went merrily off to war… but did they forget about their little takeover?  NO WAY!  They were just warming up!

 

"We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world -- no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."  --  Woodrow Wilson, U.S. President during World War I.

 

Their dark haired boy was just around the corner…

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I woke up this morning to work on Part Two of the Corporate Coup and what news greets me???

          Senate Passes Bush's Eavesdropping Bill

So the gutless Congress has bent over again... "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"  Bush DEMANDS they pass this before their recess, and they acquiesce.  You know, maybe there IS something to that "surrender monkey" accusation... the "Democratic" Congress is certainly surrendering a LOT to the Bush Goon-squad.  Even trying to sneak in bits and pieces of the supposedly "dead" immigration bill for him.  No guts whatsoever.  They take impeachment "off the table", they're reluctant to table funding bills, and now, they pass legislation because Bush DEMANDS it?  

One of two things is going on here... either they're playing the "we're too weak, we need MORE Democrats elected so we can move forwards" ploy.  Or they're under the same control as the Republicans, and just putting on a show until... what?

Here's another report that wasn't so obvious...

          Federal Agents Frisking Bus Passengers in Indianapolis

Now this one made me rock back and say "Whoa!"  Federal agents, with Air Marshals, set up two checkpoints in Indy, patting down people, and conduct "behavior testing"?  Behavior???  For what?  Are they looking to see if the people act guilty?  Get upset?  Or take it like sheep?  So what's next, "Papers, please" next May when the Real ID act goes into effect?

What in the hell is going on here?

Well, I for one supported giving the Democratic Party a chance to stop the runaway train last November... and they've blown it!  They would rather play politics than do what they were elected to do... turn this debacle around.  Actions talk, BS walks.  Time to walk on them. 

The ONLY politicians showing any sort of guts these days are Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul, and they're pariahs of their parties.  And why is that?  When voters vote on strictly ISSUES, not personalities, these two win handily.  So why aren't they right up there, numero uno of their parties?  Because they're too UNCONVENTIONAL... or so we're told.  The monied candidates are busy making them look like radicals, using their propaganda machines to demonize them while trying to canonize their own candidate.  And, we the unwitting sheep  listen to the pundits spin on TV and go "yup, yup, they're SCREWBALLS, alright, by jingy!"  But are they REALLY?

Well, maybe its time to think the unthinkable, people.  Can we REALLY elect any more a screwball political system than what we've got right now?  Maybe its time to give Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive... as the old Sport Cola commercial went... "... a good swift KICK!"  Maybe its time to vote ISSUES, not party line.  Its time Move-On and the rest of the political activists abandoned the "Politics As Usual" parties and started supporting ISSUES, not parties.  We have been BETRAYED, so I feel no remorse in abandoning them in return.  Neither should you.

Question is: where to go?  Well, I think the Libertarian philosophy goes too far: they're heavy into deregulation of corporations, which is part and parcel of the entire problem with politics.  Corporations are corrupted by too much power already... government regulation controls their greedier impulses.  So scratch the Libertarians.  Communists?  Puhleeze, it took us too long to off their previous incarnation.  Anyone who thinks power is derived from the barrel of a gun is going to lean totalitarian.  Dittos with any fascist group.  Most of the other parties are too niche, and would not be an acceptable compromise. 

Greens?... promising.  Same with the Populist Party.   A lot of the issues which win with voters deal with environmental and populist issues.  Of course, the term "populist" is being demonized by the parties of control, but look at the Party carefully.  The original populist movement started the best years of American prosperity.  What we need is a party which is dedicated to protecting the environment AND listening to the people.  A merger of the two?

Whatever we're going to do, now is the time.  Because the controlling two parties are running us into the dirt.  Its time to organize, and mount a serious challenge they cannot ignore.  Because the politicians will continue to protect THEMSELVES and their position as long as we allow them to.  We need fearless individuals who will step up and say "NO, Bush, we will not gut the Constitution... NO, Congress, we will not allow you to give our rights away... NO DEALS... NO COMPROMISE!"  People who will fight for every inch against the erosion of our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  People who will make the tough decisions, not the political ones.  Decisions like fighting terrorism with unconventional forces, like securing the border, like taking care of our own with universal health care and retirement.  People who owe their allegiance to the PEOPLE, not the corporations.  People without wool over their eyes.

Because, as the preacher in Blazing Saddles put it, "Well, son, you're on your own..."  We need to remove these people, NOW.  Its time to vote another party... or "None of The Above" if you have the means.  If you don't want to be herded along like sheep to the slaughter.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

So did everybody enjoy the last Fourth of July, our annual "celebration of freedom"? 

What's that, you didn't?  Why, you sick little monkey... how dare you not enjoy this wonderful thing called "democracy"... where every man is equal... where no person's vote is greater than another's... where you can shop for all sorts of "bargains" to celebrate capitalism?

Is it because you had a funny feeling there's something wrong here?  I sure did...

Now, I'm not a big fan of Paris Hilton... unlike some, I'm not into the "Lifestyles of a Bitch Who's Famous" crowd.  But isn't it a bit odd that someone who didn't violate national security, who didn't put our covert operatives at risk, gets more time in jail than one who DOES?  I think perhaps "Scooter" should change his nickname to "Skater", because he skated out of jail time.  What a FABULOUS Fourth of July present to the nation, sneaked right in there before the Fourth break!  As if people wouldn't notice...

Then, there was the Immigration Reform deal.  Admirable that the American people spoke up on that one to get it shut down... but we still don't have the borders secured!  And no one ever gets to the point... if the illegal immigrants don't get employed, perhaps they'll leave of their own volition?  I mean, they're coming here to SEND money home, what if they have to pay American rates for services like food, shelter, medical care, and can't get employed?  I don't think they'll stay here long if they have to draw money from home in a fruitless search for work.  Perhaps we need to concentrate on those who hire illegals?  Enforce the regulations, maybe have some CEOs and human resources people do some jail time?  Maybe Paris would have felt less stressed having some higher class cellmates?

How about the demise of "Fast Track"?  Now surely there's something to celebrate!  How many people would buy a shirt declaring "My job was FAST TRACKED overseas!"  Because that's what happened.  The Administration tried like hell... and is STILL trying... to get it renewed. Guess they haven't screwed up everybody's jobs yet!  Lets hope the Congress has the moxie to give them a one finger salute... thumbs down!

So many things going sour in so little time... enough to make you wonder what's happened to America.  Its almost like the government is something foreign... something inhuman....

...EXACTLY!

As I've said before, PEOPLE no longer control the government.  Its no longer is there to protect human interests.  Its there to protect the interests of its new controller: the legally constructed personage of the corporation.  Without the bloodshed which usually accompanies such things, a coup has been pulled off by the corporate interests.  That is why you feel uncomfortable.

Our Founding Fathers knew quite well what corporate power could do to their grand experiment, and thus you see not a word in the Constitution about allowing them to exist.  Listen to what Jefferson had to say on the subject:

“If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency… the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

 

“I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."  --   Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.

 

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."  --   Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates Spafford, 17 Mar. 1817, cited in Papers 14:221 (1).

The early charters were very specifically trying to limit corporate powers: setting a time limitation, limits on capital, very defined objectives, liabilities.  The legal person was given a life span, economic status, goals, and conscience.  All of which irked the hell out of corporate interests.  So, even as our nation grew, so they too tried to expand their power.  And the warnings continued:

"Unless you become more watchful in your States and check this spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that the most important powers of Government have been given or bartered away, and the control of your dearest interests have been passed into the hands of these corporations." --  President Andrew Jackson, Farewell Address, March 4, 1837.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war."  --   Abraham Lincoln, letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov 21, 1864. Reference: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY).

Notice how worried Lincoln seems to be over the whole turn of affairs?  Well, I guess old "Honest Abe" was a "conspiracy theorist"...

It gets worse...

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I've put this off far too long... 

Looking at some of the articles and commentary over on Netscape, I see consensus building.  That something isn't right... something has gone wrong.  Something needs to be done.  Its coming from both sides of the aisle now.  The hopes of the 2006 elections were dashed by politicians doing what politicians do... cave in to other interests.  The people are realizing it.

Government is supposed serve the people and protect the citizen.  The government is corrupt.  It's no longer the government by the people and for the people.  The Federal Reserve and the banking/financial interests have more control over the government than the citizen.  Government serves and protects the corporation, as the schemes of Corporate America "privatize" its functions to exclude the will of the people from the tyranny of the boardroom.  The citizen is merely a profit generator.  Cheap labor to drive profit margins higher.  Insurance corporations make money when the citizens are healthy, medical corporations profit when the citizens are sick.  Congress gives away its powers, the Executive takes claim over them as it stacks the Judiciary.  The military, supposedly under civilian control, is used for corporate interests; Iraq is being fought for the oil and the enrichment of the military industrial complex.

The time is here...

Its coming to a head, and soon.  Either the people win, or they'll be put out to pasture like the sheep they have turned out to be.  We either stand, not as good Republicans, good Democrats, good liberals, good conservatives, good progressives... but as good Americans, or we start growing wool over our eyes.  Because its no longer "conspiracy theory"... its conspiracy, fact.  We've been warned for years, but we didn't listen.  And those who warned us were not "nut cases"; they were our Presidents, our jurists, our soldiers.  They were American patriots, those who had eyes to see.   The warnings were clear... but we were not.  So, I'm going to post them in this blog periodically, so you can see them.

The time is here...

Its time for Joe Sixpack to rise out of the Lay-z-boy, turn off the TV, look out his window, and say "Damn, what is THIS?!?!"  While he sat stupefied, thinking that "what's good for business is good for America", Joe's "saviors" in the boardroom shipped his and his buddies jobs offshore and lowered their wages, hypnotizing him to say "Thank you, sir, may I have another?"  The rugged individualist is now a fat out-of-shape dependent on the corporate teat.  Joe was filled with so much fear of "socialism" that Joe doesn't realize that whether your "just pay" is set by government or the boardroom, its still control.

The time is here...

Its time to defend that "goddamn piece of paper" the man who would be king so derisively referred to (the one which gave us the freedom to disagree, to worship as we choose, to seek "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness") and stop manufacturing our own brand of totalitarianism.  We must get rid of the Federal Reserve System, the Trojan Horse which allows banking interests to control our government.  We must reform the rules of incorporation, to revoke the control of the large corporations and restore hope for the small businessperson.  We must enact legislation and correct judicial decisions to end the power of the globalists and the lobbyists.  It is time to make government, once again, the champion of the citizen, and the nemesis of the totalitarian.  Because in a world where corporate power can overwhelm the citizen, the government HAS to become the citizen's equalizer. 

There are things which the citizen has the right to...  for example, health.   It gives us "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".  NO man has a right to profit from another man's sickness.  We need universal health care... instead of paying medical insurance premiums, Medicare tax, HMO's, all the myriad medical expenses which make American health care so expensive, its one payer and one payee.  To take care of all, even the small corporations, which cannot afford health care for their employees.  The burden is off the employer, the relief is to the employee.  As a bonus, the large pharma and medical lobby are out of the politics business.

We must get big business out of OUR business.  Then remake government to serve PEOPLE again, not the "legal person" which opened the door to corporate abuse.  We must awaken to the truth that there ARE some areas where government SHOULD be involved for the public good, such as police, military, and fire protection, highways and infrastructure...  and control of the corporation.

Now, that's not to say there aren't corporations that are well run.  There are corporations that have not stiffed their employees, which employ American, which give good value to their customers and don't make them call to Asia to have wrongs redressed.  There's small businesses which treat their customers and workers like family.  You know, good old family values?  Those that do deserve their success and our support, but not our government.

Yes, the time is here.  Time to retire the old tired politics.  Time for us to recreate government and our social system to takes care of people.  Time to put the corporate Jinn back in the bottle.  

The time is here... to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved
  

We are the dead...

I remember that one of the first things I was told when I joined the Army was "Read anything before you sign it... it might be a re-enlistment paper!"  Good advice, and something we do in all our day to day activities.  After all, how many of you ended up sputtering and spitting over something that you'd signed and missed a little surprise in the fine print?  Insurance policies, home contracts, end user agreements...  In the rush of everyday life, sometimes we just glance over papers and, being trusting souls, sign away. Admit it to yourself, we've all done it. Nasty habit!

So it can't be no surprise to hear our representatives in CONgress do the same thing.  It used to be a politician could keep up with this stuff.  Not anymore... with behemoth tomes like the USA PATRIOT Act, the last Military Appropriations Bill (which carried a parasite from the Bush Administration), and the recently defeated Immigration Bill., there just is not enough time to review everything, let alone understand it.  Politicians are only human, aren't they (maybe...)?  And talk about DRY... they just don't allow racy bits to be put in to liven these things up (except for the Starr Report, that one probably had the Religious Right titillated for months!).  Truth be known, probably the only thing they read is the title (hence all of the cutsie little names like "No Child Left a Dime"... oops... "...Behind"!).  They might sneak a quick look to make sure that little earmark or pork project got in there.  You'd think that their staff's supposed to help them with understanding issues?  Naw, there's more important things to do, like reelection campaigns, PR, accepting bribes... er...  donations.  You have lobbyists who THINK its their job, but we know how good they are at education... only if their bankrollers approve!

We should demand more of the politicians who affect our lives.  Especially when they're dealing with the unsavory characters in their line of business!  Because, after all, they are effectively signing each bill with YOUR name whenever they vote for it.  Myself, I want them to KNOW what they're signing, so I can either approve or disprove and hold them accountable if need be.  There isn't a Congressional "Lemon Law" to protect you, and, boy, some of this stuff is enough to give a whole new meaning to "pucker power"!

The situation really is inexcusable.  I'm obviously not the only one who thinks so: Jefferson required in his manual for Congressional procedure that each bill get THREE readings, in each House.  Somewhere along the line, that got dropped.  However, recently a group called DownsizeDC.org (http://www.downsizedc.org/) started a push to enact a "Read the Bills Act" to reinstate reading the bills.  I have to heartily agree, because even though the situation provides comedy when Michael Moore gets an opportunity to ride in an ice cream truck and read over a loudspeaker, its not always a laughing matter.  They've got some good ideas, so check out the Act on their website... http://www.downsizedc.org/rtba_legislation.shtml

I like the fact that the bill is READ in total, amendments and all, to a full quorum of the house prior to voting.  It certainly would encourage making  bills clean and to the point, wouldn't it?  My bet is the politicos hate (or don't understand) that circuitous language any more than we do!  This would be 7 days prior to any action, which gives the politician time to either read the thing, or divvy it up amongst staffers and say "I want you to brief me on what this means and answer any questions I have the day before the vote."   It would probably mean expanding the staff, but pass some real anti-lobbying legislation and put those people to good use on OUR side for a change! 

AND, even better, posting bills on the Internet... so we ALL can take a look at the bills and comment good, bad, or ugly.  Something I'd do is print the comments (or at least the statistics on the comments) as well, so you can see if that person really IS voting in the people's interest.

Another part I find fascinating is the following: "...any person against whom such a bill is enforced or applied may invoke such noncompliance as a complete defense to any action, criminal or civil, brought against him."  This would make any person prosecuted under a law which is not read and published per the Act capable of acquittal because the process is not followed.  This would have meant prosecutions under the Patriot Act, null and void!  But I doubt if they'd make this retroactive... all of our current body of laws enacted without proper reading would be voided as well!  But would that really be so bad, considering?

Anyways, I think this is a good idea... at least a good start in returning control of government back to the people.  So check it out!

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

You hear the accusation thrown around so many times these days it gets annoying.  Its the latest buzzword, the guaranteed emotional insult.   After all, we lost a lot of good soldiers fighting them, and we have a lot of veterans still surviving that paid in blood to wipe their blot from our world.  And yet... everybody's a Nazi.  You've got Feminazis, Neo-Nazis, Soup-Nazis... you have right wing talk show hosts calling blogs which criticize them Nazis (Oh Really?  Guess I'd better learn the goose-step...)  Everyone gets called a Nazi! 

Its getting overused; perhaps that is the idea behind the extensive use?  To blur the reality of what the Nazis were... and who most likely resembles them?  So, lets look at the REAL Nazis.

They were, first and foremost, NOT what we would label a "leftist".  Far from that, they hated the Communists, even as they signed a peace treaty with them, and knifed them as soon as it was convenient.  The Communists were against religion, believing it to be the "opium of the masses".  So those of you who are using the term "Nazi" to describe leftist leanings... bzzzt!  WRONG! 

They WERE, however, fascists.  Which Mussolini defined as the marriage of government and corporations.  Corporations extol the virtues of capitalism, anathema to Communist society.  Nazism was a right-wing ideology!  They were also supposedly "Christian" (though they dabbled in occultism); definitely for state religion.   Those of you using Nazi to describe corporate/capitalist/religious leanings... advance to the front of the class!  That is a proper use of the term.

Why compare the current Administration to Nazis?  Because both are examples of corporations married to state?  Because both are right wing?  Because both used a terrorist event as an excuse to seize powers they would not have normally had?  Because both used military force to overcome a "threatening" state which couldn't mount a viable resistance (do Polish sausages count as WMD)?   Because of the cross-connections which exist:  a key players' family supporting the Nazis financially?  A chief political advisor's expressed admiration for the political effectiveness of the Nazi regime?  The control of a propaganda machine worthy of Goebbels?  How about a group of people obsessed with a military humiliation years before determined to raise their country again out of the depths of depravity to the glory of world power?

Sure, "Nazi" is a negative, emotional word.  But what "shining" examples of abused fascist power exist?  Hitler's Germany, Franco's Spain,  Mussolini's Italy... the Kaisers' Germany?  The others are not as well defined in people's minds.  The ONE undeniable, unassailable example of fascism gone amok is Nazi Germany!  And as much as the right wingers hate being compared to them, there is no better example of what they espouse gone astray.  That's "the way it is".

Now, there ARE differences.  In the 1945 version, the state assumed control over the corporations.  In the hip new version, the corporations control the state.  In 1945, the state controlled religion.  In our modern version, a religion is dictating what state policy should be.  The terrorists are not part of the party... but they WERE enabled by the state (nice of us to train them so well, eh?).  So there are differences; the strain has mutated and adapted.  Our own brand of fascism.  

So if you can't deny the accusation, muddy the waters.  EVERYONE'S a Nazi, especially the opposition!  Throw the term around, confuse the issue.  Hey, we're dumbing down the population anyways (note the attacks on the "educated elitists"), maybe someday the people won't be able to tell the difference.  Fascism, communism... Eurasia, Oceania... just another enemy...  It doesn't really matter much where your money comes from: the company which controls you, or the government which controls you.  The end result is the SAME,  control by someone else. 

Those who say "It can't happen here!" because we fought the previous strain of fascism, consider this.  I'm sure the German people never considered themselves evil, or capable of doing what their political leaders directed them to do.  Remember the Nuremberg Defense, "I was only following orders"?  Blind and unquestioning obedience, brought about by fear.  Fear of Jews.  Fear of Communists.  Fear of Terrorists.
Fear of <insert your favorite here>.  Remember the line from "V for Vendetta"... "I want them to realize WHY they need US!"  Look at your newspapers and on your television.  Gut feelings... intelligence assessments... "Al Queda planning attacks", "Al Queda trying to infiltrate"... oh yes... its coming!  While unheard of powers of government are enacted by fiat without the benefit of public scrutiny, comment, and debate.  There WILL be another attack, that is evident.  And when it comes... what will we do?

Will we remain the land of the free?  Or will we allow another dictator to assume power, start the detentions, and fire the ovens?  Will we breathe the fresh air of freedom, or the stench as a pall of smoke covers the land?  How many deaths will occur to defeat the new totalitarianism... its takes more and more each cycle.

It's no wonder they hate being called "Nazis".  Because it brings to mind the misery and death that result when corporations and the state are wed.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

Friday the 13th, July 2007.  I listened to the news that the stock market is at record highs. The economy is booming! That's really wonderful.  And I laughed. 

 

I hope my coworkers who lost their jobs that day take comfort in the news.

 

It was rumored for some time that it was coming.  The company has been chanting the mantra of "we're losing market share" for a few weeks now.  Sales are down, no orders coming in, and for all of management's "forecasts", "lean manufacturing", and sales "expertise", they haven't been able to reverse the trend.  So the workers will reap the whirlwind.  But not the management.

 

For while at least 116 workers are being sent to the unemployment line, none will be management.  The same management which, in its push for "productivity", warehoused parts to turn to rust, reducing them to scrap.  The same management which, to save labor costs, had our new product produced in a cheap labor factory which didn't have the skills to assemble it properly.  The new product's sales failed, and the customers demanded their goods be assembled at the plant that laid people off Friday.  The company continues to build those products at the other plant, but it ships them HERE to be packaged in our plant's boxes!  The same management who hires low cost, inexperienced engineers to develop new products made of parts produced offshore so cheaply they are often defective.  For all of their reverse engineering skills, honed by the disassembly of so many competitor's goods that the scrap often contains several items made by the competition, it still cannot produce a quality product.  Parts that used to be rejected and scrapped are now "pencil whipped" by these engineers and used anyways.

 

No, its the workers who pay.  While the company hires MORE management people.  While it buys new factories in Italy, builds new ones in China, and outsources many items formerly made here elsewhere.

 

I wonder how many people will ever hear of my former coworkers, and who will care?  I wonder how many workers are in similar situations?  It made our local news; in fact, the irony is that the local media knew the layoff details before the affected workers were told.  How strange!  Even though over fifty in total will be laid off, which counts as a "mass layoff", the company is doing it piecemeal so it will not to stir up too much public interest.  Great spin control!  And since, the Labor Department stopped collecting data and reporting on mass layoffs in 2002, my friends will quietly disappear into the background.  So they hope.

 

Some of my coworkers will be found in other statistics: people whose homes are foreclosed, cars repossessed, the uninsured...  Some of them were laid off last fall, and most of their unemployment benefits, which run on a rolling 52 week year, are exhausted.  Like those of one single mother, raising a 13 year old son, who was called back just as her benefits ran out.  She's laid off again, and this time, there will be no unemployment.  She'll vanish from the books immediately, because even though she's unemployed, she won't be counted.  Or the girl who has two weeks left, and a car payment.  Goodbye car!  There's more in similar situations, because the company has had 4 layoffs in 3 years, and  Number Five is rumored to be coming in October.  Even though they're union workers, they've been told not to expect a call back.  The management "projections" are grim all the way into next year.  People formerly counted as "permanent" employees are being told by union stewards to take temporary jobs, which forfeits their "permanent" status.  They'll be reclassified as "temps", and have no job security. 

 

Those who remain, well, there's contract negotiations in progress.  The corporation is out to scare and divide those workers.  They're telling them they must "adjust their way of working", that they should be concerned.  That if the company can't get their costs down, the company could go out of business.  While they're saying this, they're reducing the size of the machine shop to put in more management offices, and buying more plants and parts elsewhere.  It is a scare tactic; they're not planning on going out of business, they're planning to move elsewhere!  The survivors are largely high seniority and nearing retirement.  They're worried because the young workers are being laid off.  Maybe they'll be shuffled into the dirty, demanding jobs the low seniority people were sent to do.  If they're laid off, all that is left is early retirement, because they will be too old to get a decent paying job.  The company is using the moment to scare them into contract concessions.

 

This is "Corporate America, 2007".

 

These people are the latest casualties in the corporate coup d'etat which is steadily taking over the world under the name of globalism.  The flesh and blood citizens of the world are being brought under the control of the multinational corporations; their voices and their will being silenced by the tyranny of the boardroom.  There will be some who will scream "Communist!" or such, but I ask, what IS the difference if you're being controlled by the state or by the company, when your freedom is gone in both instances?  Communism, corporatism, or fascism, its all the same thing. 

Totalitarian control.

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I've been off of here for a while now, working third shifts (You never seem to get enough sleep on that schedule... perhaps its because its unnatural to be sleeping during the days, so you never REALLY get good sleep?). Between work, the dysfunctional neighborhood I live in, and a morbid curiousity to see just how the new Congress would do, I decided to give it a rest and see how the world would run.

Many bottles of Maalox later, I'm back.

In the interim, the occupation went on (badly), the politics went on (also badly), the economy went on (guess... I watched around 120 coworkers get laid off, many who have no unemployment benefits because they were also laid off last fall)... same BS, different day! I've become more convinced than ever before that we have experienced a coup d'etat plotted, financed, and executed by corporate interests, and that too much power has been lost by the people to make a relatively painless correction. There's a bad moon rising.

On the positive side, Bill Moyers is back, Jim Hightower is as insightful as ever, and people are waking up on both sides of the aisle. Recent events are taking a bipartisan flavor: there's more Republicans calling for ending the occupation, resignation, or impeachment. Though there's still a lot of difference in how to approach the issues, I am hopeful that there will be a final compromise, better yet, an abandonment of the parties controlled by big money for a third party more concerned with the PEOPLE than kowtowing to their funders.

On a more personal front, I have been able to do some more reading, research, and connect with my son who's visiting me for the summer. I am such a bad influence... by the time he goes home, he'll be listening to Oingo Boingo, Zappa, and somewhat more educated on what is happening in the world (he lives in a VERY Christian/Conservative area, and my family and relatives are right in there trying to program the boy).

So here I am, once again, as Subversive as ever. Its still good to be an SOB!

Peace! Donnaich

We are the dead...

...some of us deader than others! 

Just when you think you'll get some time... life intrudes.  With overtime required, I've had to pay attention to it and not the blog!  It seems I've made myself indispensable at work... they don't want me to leave.  Ever.  Not even to say hello to the wife!

Anyone remember the 28th anniversary of the Three Mile Island meltdown on March 28th?  I thought not...

A conversation at work the other day started a chain of thought running in my mind.  We were discussing how people could be so naive about acting against their interests when it comes to corporations.  Then I got my rent invoice from my landlord, one of those "get rich now" types who may be getting a rude surprise when the housing bubble collapses and all that "easy income" from the equity comes crashing down.  That's when a realization hit me.

Of course, THAT'S how the corporations are doing it... the "ownership society"!

My wife, bless her, has gotten some of these wealth guru materials.  In it, they tell people to start home "limited liability" corporations, take the tax credits for a home office, put their SUVs in the corporation's name, and other little tricks.  Pay yourself an income from the business.  That way, if you crash, everything you paid with your "salary" is yours, the company assets takes the liability hit, and you walk away with what you didn't put in the corporation's name.  In other words, "Use the SYSTEM, Luke!" 

These people are NOT self-made, they are making it with things you, the citizenry, have provided, or they have been given by government to encourage "economic growth"... transport systems, tax breaks, clean environment, labor.  And they want even more of you, so they can live easier.  Ever seen one of these people say, "Hey, you know, I think I'll do some physical work as hard as the folks on the shop floor."  Nope, they look for people to drive their cars, clean their house, cook their food, make them exercise... in short, they're in the business to make OTHER PEOPLE do their work.  Its called "externalities", baby! 

Meanwhile, how many of you are working "mandatory overtime", where you're scheduled (and expected) to work without any consultation?  How many of you no longer have sick days?  Don't try calling in dead, they'll probably dock your paycheck.   How many of you are working weekends?  Used to be there were "Sunday Blue" laws; now, its just another day to make a buck once you get out of weekly church obligation.

How have people been brainwashed into accepting slavery and subservience to others?  Is it the "Christian work ethic"?  Hate to say this, but according to my reading, man was not MADE to work... it only became so AFTER the whole Garden of Eden debacle!  No mention of Adam or Eve working there.  Maybe that's why the early mortality and occupational disease?  Interesting line of thought, eh?  But back to the prior train... it seems that when we made slavery illegal, the masters learned to get sneakier.  Make people dependent on society... cut their wages, cut the "entitlements", chain them to the financial system, raise the prices (anyone notice how gas prices are rising, and not "boo" is said?  It's like people say "We've been here before...", and instead of protesting, they just let it go).  Make it so if you have a job, you're thankful.  When you get assigned overtime, its a blessing.  When you hear someone accuse the management of making too much, you scream "Socialist!  They give us JOBS!  They EARNED it!!!"

The "ownership society"... Y2K style.  What they own... is you!

Stick it to the man!

... and I really WILL try to be a little more active on here.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I'm coming back off another lull in logging... I take these periodically because, frankly, there is much more to life than an online existence!  I find that, when you're so caught up in the online world, things tend to slack, like reading, research, paying attention to the "real" world.  You have to do it sometimes to maintain balance and sanity.  Considering the likes of some of the trolls, NeoCons, and religious extremists on Netscape, you could probably see why!

Don't get me wrong, the Internet is a great place for information and making contacts (I even found my soulmate on here)!  And there are some really stimulating conversations, as some of the articles I've put on show.  I'm engaged in a really interesting one right now on religion.  But too much I find makes me feel lousy: pent up frustration, anxiety, etc.  So you have to pace yourself.  Go out and listen to the birds, read, find your peace.  So I will have occasional downtime on here.

Sometimes, you see things you really don't want to.  The other day, I put out the recycling on the curb for pickup.  I was puttering around the house doing the domestic thing when I heard noise outside.  I looked out and saw him... an elderly gent on a bike with a garbage bag in his hands.  He was looking through our recyclables for aluminum cans, I think.  It sounded like a bag of them he had.  I noted it to my wife, who was home at the time.  She said she's seen him many times before.  One time, she had some cans in our bin in the house, so she took them out to him.  He seemed offended she did that.  So she hasn't done it since.  I believe I've also seen him before, putting a garbage bag into a dumpster at a local "handy bandit".  We have to attach a $2 sticker to each bag of trash we put out.  Couldn't he afford it?

It got me to wondering.  The man looks to be of retirement age.  Does he feel he's doing his part for nature.  I doubt it, its already being recycled.  I doubt he's a collector, too many items.  There's only one explanation: he's supplementing his income.   For whatever reason, he wants to get the recycling fees.  His fixed income may not be providing enough, so every garbage day, he's out on his trike, supplementing it.  Its probably demeaning to him, having to pick through others trash, and perhaps that's why he was upset at what my wife thought was an act of kindness.  Did he think she thought less of him, like a rat in the trash pile?  Not the case, but he may have seen it that way.  Was is because of our neighborhood?  Lets face it, I live in a neighborhood where alcohol (at the least) is the main past-time, along with racing cars at all hours.  He probably gets a LOT of cans on this street.  Not a lot from us, but the rest of the block makes up for us.

Is he a forgotten old man, no family taking care of him?  Or would he be ashamed if his family knew?  Is he taking care of himself, or someone else?   How many more people like him are out there?  Was he a low wage worker who lived paycheck to paycheck to provide for his family,  and didn't have any savings left due to medical bills or long unemployment?  Was his pension eaten somehow?  Did he lose it switching between jobs, when his plan wasn't portable?  Or maybe he was like our neighbors, and swallowed his retirement?  If that's the case, some would look upon him with contempt.  "He did it to himself!"  Sad, have we become a "Christian" nation with a lack of compassion?  Many questions, too few answers.

I wonder, but I will not shame or offend him with the questions.  I'll allow him his dignity.  But I'm also going to separate out those cans and put them in a separate recycle container, instead of the "commingled" one.  I'll make it easier for him, whatever the case.

Because I wonder if, in a few years, I'll be seeing a lot more of his kind.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

I was sitting outside security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, having arrived a wee bit early and waiting to go in to pick up my son who was coming to visit.  A time of joy for me, I always look forwards to his visits.  But while I was there, I also witnessed something which tempered my joy.

I saw several young men pass by, sporting military haircuts and carrying duffel bags.  Undoubtedly, they were some of our soldiers.  One young man had his girl with him.  This young couple went to the security check-in point, and then stopped.  They held hands a while, talking to each other quietly, both their faces trying to cover the hurt.  After a while, they couldn't do it any more, and ended up embracing each other.  People looked away, knowing this was a private time, but you could see tears on her young face.  They held each other a long time, until some of the other soldiers called to him.  Not the "veins in the teeth" hooahs of basic training, but with understanding for what was happening.  The couple slowly parted: another man (I believe it was a brother) shook the young soldier's hand, and the soldier started through the line.  You could tell he hated parting like this; he stopped at a close point in the line and they hugged again.  Then he passed through security, and kept looking towards his girl as he went through the metal detectors… then finally passed out of view.

The brother and girl walked away, tears running down her face.  I tried hard to look like I hadn't noticed, wishing I could say something that would comfort her, like "He'll be okay.  He's one of our best trained soldiers… he'll do fine."  But there was a knot in my gut that would have made my words come out sounding insincere.  That would have made things worse for her.  So I just leaned back and tried to ignore the unsteady steps as she walked away.

I thought about how this scene plays out over and over again these days.  Remembering the pictures of soldiers, some in uniform, giving one last hug before flying into harm's way.  One time an ex-soldier made a comment to me about how "they're not supposed to be doing that in uniform".  Ah, yes, public displays of affection.  I wouldn't want to be the commander to press that issue.  In fact, if I were the commander, I'd have the rest of the troops form a perimeter to keep the photographers away and let them have some privacy.  But that's just me.

Because we all hope they'll come back home, in one piece, so their loved one can again have their affection.  Sadly, too many of them don't.  Some come home in caskets.  Others come home wounded.  Even more come home with mental wounds.  I recently saw a soldier on TV who used to be a truck driver, but isn't any longer.  He couldn't pass roadkill on the highways without wondering if it was rigged with explosive, or slow down in traffic without fearing his vehicle would be ambushed.  Will the young soldier I saw in Chicago return to his girl unscathed?  Thankfully, the odds are he'll be alive, but I hate to say I have my doubts whether he's coming back the same person.  The Administration will try not to tell us how many come back changed somehow… but it is a significant number.  Anyone exposed to warfare can never be the same again.

How can ANYBODY say people do not "support the troops" when we want them home?

It's infuriating that some chickenhawk who never had to face that moment in person could bring so many of our bright young soldiers to this point.  So many soldiers who could contribute so much to society.  Colonel David Hackworth, in his book "Hazardous Duty", marveled at how intelligent these volunteer troops are.  It seems odd, but many of these troops join not to become a target in some perpetual war, but to better their life and gain an education.  If the fight was necessary, that's one thing.  Instead, they are sent to mark time in the kill zone of an unnecessary war with insufficient body armor and training.  I wonder how many troops we have to sacrifice, how many spouses and lovers we have to allow to grieve their loss, will it take before we admit the mistake?   Even after the midterm election, when the American people loudly voiced their opinion, these people insist on trying to salvage their place in history with more American blood.  McNamara finally admitted he was wrong about Vietnam.  I wonder if Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz could do the same…?

I certainly was glad I was there to greet my son home, not sending him off to war.  Or even worse, claiming what remained of him after coming home from the war.  As that crying girl walked away from the security checkpoint at O'Hare, I'm sure she just wanted her man back alive and well.  I am sure that he wanted to come back to her whole, even as he bravely went to perform his duty. 

 I hope they both get their wish.

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2007 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?"

As one gets older, life becomes increasingly sad.  You think of the "auld acquaintances".

It's bad enough when we lose family and friends.  Knowing that you will never interact with them again… never see their smiles or laugh at their humor.  But the most constant reminder of our short life isn't just in the deaths of our friends and family.  Other deaths also remind us we're only here a short time.

It begins to sink in when you realize that the bands you listened to and loved when you were young will no longer have a reunion because members are dead.  When you're in high school, listening to those bands made up of people older than you, you never think of it.  You groove to those sweet notes in the headphones.  You rock with The Who, mellow to Chicago, learn not to eat yellow snow from Frank Zappa, and get rowdy with The Tubes.  Life acquires a soundtrack, and all seems right with the world.

Then death marches in.  When I was in basic training, several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd died in a plane crash.  Terry Kath died in a tragic firearms accident.  Keith Moon OD'd while I was in the Army, too.  Frank Zappa and John Entwistle bowed out much later.  Vince Welnick, who I will always remember as one of The Tubes, committed suicide the day before my 47th birthday.  And as sad as that was, I didn't even know it until months later.  He wasn't in the limelight anymore…

That in itself is a sad state of affairs.  I rejoice hearing Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, and other old bands still out there and playing.  Some bands are out there with some of the old gang still kicking out the jams with some newer members.  What's left of The Who are out on stage… my son just went to see them, and thought they were fantastic.  More power to ya, guys!  But you wonder what some of the old gang, like the Tubes, are doing… Some make it big, like Mike Cotton (looking forwards to your completing The Tubes Project, it ought to make up for never getting to see the group in concert!) and Prairie Prince (The New Cars).  Others, like Bill "Sputnik" Spooner, are hanging in there.  And still others… well, anyone know what Re Styles is doing?   They just up and disappear from the stage, a long ago memory fading from view.

All of the people who make up the "soundtrack of our lives" fall to the ravages of age and the whims of fame and fortune.  So when we hear the old tunes, we are blessed with the old memories, and cursed with the evidence of our mortality.  Even while we laugh and relate the antics and music of the bygone times, we cannot escape feeling a little depressed over what we and the world has lost.  So we cling to our old vinyl, relish the tapes, and cheer over the releases of CD versions of our tunes.  Even better when a DVD of a concert appears.   Your old friends live on…

So I and others will find joy in listening to the music of our youths while we still can.  And when we can no longer find editions of the albums that so filled our lives, the music will play on in our memories until they too fade away.

So fairwell and godspeed, Terry, Keith, Ronnie, Frank, John, Vinnie, and all the rest… thank you for being on the stage of my life.  I hope you're having one hell of a jam session wherever you are… and, my friends, you will not be forgotten.  At least while your fans are still around.

We are the dead...

Remember how people were dreading the year 1984 because of the dire predictions of the book by George Orwell?  How people were relieved when its dreadful predictions did not occur (except, perhaps, my first marriage… and that was my fault!).  A feeling came about like "well, we dodged a bullet on that one", and people went on with their lives like nothing was going to happen.

Think again.  Orwell was a very astute observer, and made several interesting predictions.  His fault?  Maybe he was overly pessimistic and missed the mark by 20 some years…

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship."

Why do some Republicans call the post-Reagan era the "Republican Revolution"?  Poor choice of words, eh?

"The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, 'just to keep people frightened'."
- from 1984

Since 9-11, we've had several orange alerts, warnings and rumors about Al-Qaeda  attacks on malls, the Christmas season, sporting events, political events, water supplies, agriculture, using stolen propane trucks, auctioned UPS uniforms, car bombs, truck bombs, shoe bombs… No, Julia, Oceania doesn't need to lob rocket bombs, just a few well placed "advisories".  That'll keep people just as frightened.

"All that is needed [for control] is that a state of war should exist."
                                                          - from 1984

War on drugs.  9-11.  War on terrorism.  War in Afghanistan.  War in Iraq.  Now we're investigating Iran's links to 9-11.  Next, war in Iran?  Enlisted personnel not being allowed to leave the service when their commitment is over.  Reserve and National Guard units being mobilized.  Even former officers, nearing the retirement age, are being called back.  How close are we to the "perpetual war"?  

"...the consequences of being at war, and therefore danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival."

Relinquishment of war powers to the Executive by Congress.  The Patriot Act.  The secrecy of the Administration.  Executive privilege.  "We must stay the course".

"Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception."

A certain neo-conservative group believes that only America can provide the leadership the world requires.  Try reading the Project for the New American Century site.

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them."

The memorandum written to provide justification to ignore the Geneva Conventions in regard to suspected terrorists.  Rush Limbaugh's comments about the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.  General Boykin's authorization to use those same tactics.  I just read an article recently to pardon the troops involved in Haditha and Mahmoudiya.  Of course, then, there's the ongoing call to "nuke 'em!"

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

This quotation, to borrow a phrase from George Tenet, is "a slam-dunk".  "Clear Skies Initiative". "Healthy Forest Initiative".  "Tax Relief".  "Common Sense Policy".  "No Child Left Behind".  "Defense of Marriage Act".  "Patriot Act".  "Compassionate Conservative".  People like Frank Luntz, a political advisor, make a living bringing Orwell's "Newspeak" into existence.  Everything must be worded to make the idea palatable to the masses, phrased to set the agenda.

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men… Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."

Now here's something Orwell felt so important that he restated it, slightly modified!  Now, I do not make the claim to be intelligent, my life experiences prove I'm not!  What I am doing here is matching recent events we probably all know about up with Orwell's quotations.  The similarities are quite obvious.  I hope intelligent people will do the same.

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

There are people in our country who do not want to hear that we may have given up our rights and our freedoms in vain.  They are trying to silence the voices whispering what they do not want to hear.  And when they succeed, the terrorists will have achieved their objective.  Liberty will be silenced once and for all.

"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."


It's good to be an SOB!

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

… and while we're talking about "mind control"...

There is a website that has a byline "There's a war on for your mind".  Think on it … because there literally IS one going on right now.  Your mind is being programmed.  They don't even need to swing a watch before your eyes anymore to have you saying "My name is Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire.  I own a mansion and a yacht …" How are they doing it, you may ask?  Well, you're sitting in front of one of several devices that may be used … the others being your radio, your television... and perhaps that cute little box you're growing attached to your ear?  Hang up and drive, people!

Yes, that's right.  Turn off the TV, unplug the radio, take some time away from your computer, and reach out and disconnect someone.  Do some reading!  Especially on the subject, and it will scare the jebebus out of you.  Not since Orwell's 1984 has there ever been a more gloomy scene than today.  Although our screens can't send back your picture yet (or can it?  Got webcam?), Big Brother is here, folks.  And he's trying to take over your mind.

Its subtle, to be sure, but its being done.  For example, anyone who's experimented with mind enhancing technologies knows that to maximize your learning, or to self-hypnotize, you have to get your brain waves into an "alpha" or "theta" state.  There's various ways to do this; meditation, binaural sound generators …  there's many mad scientists out there working on new and exciting technologies.  The Soviets bombarded the United States with electromagnetic frequencies to see what they could cook up.  Unsuspecting people can even be used as guinea pigs for "non-lethal" weapons.  "Excuse me, could you stand over here a second …?"  Bzzzt … "I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire …"

What's one of the most effective?  Television!  People have been hooked up to EEGs and tested, and lo and behold, viewers glued to the TV set are cooking along on alpha waves.  Wonderful!  Even better, the refresh rates on some tubes make it even more effective.  Look at any wall in front of the TV set (I'd say watch a neighbor's living room window, but that would be voyeurism … I don't condone that.  Find your own excuse, peeper!).  See that flickering?  "You are getting sleeeeepy …"

America is being sedated by their friend the boob tube.

What about the content?   24-hour news networks drumming "patriotism", war, violence and intimidation … hmm, wonder why the country is getting so rude?  Some of this stuff even gets its own channel… 24/7 programming of the masses!  Neat! 

Like the NASCAR channel… yeah, boy, lets get out on that highway and pull Dale Earnhardt's neatest tricks!  The old "Intimidator" knew his stuff, let's just intimidate everyone out here!  Cut this person off, weave in and out of traffic; I'm not tailgating, I'm drafting!  Why officer, I wasn't speeding, I was qualifying, you know?  And you wonder where all the crazy drivers come from …

How about war?  In the lead up to the Iraq invasion, you couldn't get away from the jingoism.  History Channel specials on WMD, CNN Special Reports, USA Network with "Combat Missions" (pretty good, I watched it …).  War was being pumped everywhere.  Why?

"There's a war on for your mind."

Then there's good old talk radio for you.  All of these trash talkin' commentators playing loud adrenaline pumping bumper music to drive their beloved listeners insane, trying to make anyone who disagrees with them look like "pinko", "un-American", "slimy" (add your favorite insults here).  Throw out those allegations onto the airwaves!  Even if you have to (under your breath) retract the allegation later, first impressions count!  Repeat it often enough, it'll sound like the truth!  Some of these people even have their own television gigs and book deals, so they can peddle their prejudices to you ad nauseum.

You have political operatives who work word magic to create, as Orwell put it, "Political language... designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."  Hmm, guess I'll dig that old article out for your perusal…  Newspeak lives!

Then there's the games.  Grand Theft Auto… makes you wonder why the roadways are like they are; aggressive driving, road rage, drive-by shootings… "Drive it like you stole it!"  Left Behind - Eternal Forces … teaching our next generation of jihadi … whoops, CRUSADERS (sorry, wrong religion!  Heh heh heh…).  Doom, Duke Nukem, Mortal Combat … think we've visited this before.

"Now why would they want my mind?", you may ask?

Because the corporations want you to buy, even if you don't need it.  Because the political parties want power.  Because the military wants recruits.  Because the CEOs want you to ignore their growing wages.  Because the wealthy want you to believe they deserve your money: they've earned it "all by myself", when they were given breaks courtesy of YOUR government to help them achieve it.  On and on and on.  The best and brightest in the ad and "consent manufacturing" industry are hired to make you believe it.   Because they may be a crazy wabbit, but they're not going to Alcatwaz…

Because, to them, its all a game.  And while you get dragged away, believing what they sold you … they'll be bunny-hopping away laughing!

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

The person who objected to having to accept atrocity as part of war said if you "intellectualize it to death, conscience is numbed and dies".   I feel to eliminate violence and war, we have to understand them. We have to raise consciousness to the fact that to say "killing is natural" means we're saying "violence is okay, because we're violent beings". I don't believe that's true for most humans. I sure hope not, because that means we'll never do any better.

My conscience certainly has not been numbed by trying to understand the process, rather, my hope is if people recognize why it occurs, they will work towards trying to eliminate it. I am challenging those who think war can be fought cleanly with the thought that they are enabling some horrible things occurring.  I am telling people don't act "surprised our troops can do such a thing", because the mere fact we turned loose people trained to kill made it a likely event.  That is what my conscience guides me to do.  If the people I challenge realize what their conditioning is, maybe their conscience will kick in.

How best to stop it? That's a tough question, but here's a start. 

We need a bit of adjustment here at home.  First of all, we need to get control.  We need to look at our environment with a unbiased eye, how we condone violence, and try to reduce it.  Look at your daily affairs as an observer, and try to see what you can contribute to spreading peace, not violence.   Object to the acceptance of violence as "normal"!   We have to realize that we are being "conditioned" through a combination of violent video games, entertainment, hate spewing talk shows, "redneck" culture, becoming an "intimidator" nation, etc. It all adds up to a society tolerant not of the differences of others, but of violence.  Thats what I want to get people to think about. School shootings, mass murder, violence on the streets: these events are symptomatic of our culture.  A society whose people feel that they need to do something violent or to see realistic death and destruction to assuage themselves has got serious problems.  No more conditioning for the masses!

I believe we should limit giving combat conditioning to only those who require it (soldiers and police), then put in place adequate counseling and treatment for those who actually have to carry through.  That way, if they experience problems, we can help them before it becomes serious trouble.  Its only right that if we require them to kill "in our name", we help them out rather than let them become a danger to themselves.  We should also perform studies like the Army did on how to condition troops on how to decondition them afterwards.  We do very well with the conditioning process, too bad we can't find how to switch aggressive tendencies back off as well.

Finally,  we use war only as a last resort; no more adventurism abroad.  We work with others diplomatically, militarily only when all other options are exhausted.  Let's not glorify war by thinking we can fight a perfectly moral and correct war, because that cannot happen.  We cannot be deceived into expecting to send people into an immoral situation such as war and expect everything to run perfectly fine. It will not happen. To think otherwise is delusional, and that is what I am arguing. It just 'is'. The reason is that you've unlocked the controls which prevent murderous impulses.  You've done it through conditioning, and unless you're willing to spend a lot of time and effort in retraining, that interlock will remain disabled.  Why expose our people to war unnecessarily?  War IS an atrocity; we must not think otherwise.

Is it any wonder that other peoples look at us with fear?  We are well armed, getting more and more violent, and our military might is certainly awe-inspiring, if not fearsome.  The culture is steeped with violence … and few people care.  "Hey, man's a violent creature!  What's the big deal?"  Think that doesn't scare the bejeebus out of some people?  So what happens if, instead of being the world's greatest hope, we begin to be seen as the world's worst threat?

The terrorist threat will be the least of our worries …

Yeah, I know, I'm probably tilting at windmills, me and Don Quixote!  And yes, I realize that until such time that man learns to live together peacefully, there will be times when it is necessary to kill violent people to insure peace.  We have numerous examples of them running around right now.  Mankind, unfortunately, isn't where it should be quite yet!  But with the rising interest in spirituality, there is some cause for hope.  I sincerely hope its because we are evolving into a better world. 

We're celebrating a holiday season committed to "peace on earth, good will toward men".  I for one would really like to see that occur.  So I will continue to have hope that man is not a natural born killer, will see war as the atrocity it is, and will start to consider how to control violence instead of making it fun and games.

On that day, we will be able to study war no more.

Peace.

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

Some weeks later came a discussion over the harm of video games.  The story was on how violent video games negatively affected people, and, of course, all of the avid gamers jumped on it hot and heavy.  Their concern was not over whether or not there might be some merit to the studies, but over the loss of a GAME.

It was one of these people who I entered the discussion with after I gave the description of the Paducah, Kentucky school shootings as summarized in STOP TEACHING OUR KIDS TO KILL.  This person, who is a self-described "social liberal", was concerned about people "controlling my right to choice".  I think they should be more concerned about people controlling their mind.

Because that is what is happening right now in our society.  For some reason, whether it be the military/industrial/congressional complex (MICC), subversion, or just plain corporate greed, we are creating a nation which condones violence.  We have violence on television, violence in magazines, violence in books, violence in games, violence in music… the list is staggering.  Any one of these, in and of itself, is not the complete source of the rising violence in America, but every one synergistically adds to the situation.

Violent games are one facet of the problem.  Games are made to be exciting and fun, and a lot of them are played, as one person put it, as a "high tech punching bag".  But there's something else about them… as my correspondent wrote, he "prefers my games to be realistic".  And that is the conditioning aspect.

The Army learned that, to override the natural "switch" that keeps us from killing, you must simulate combat conditions.  Hence, silhouette targets, hit drop mechanisms, live fire… and nowadays, they use… video games!  Modified versions of your commercial game.  Why?  Because it can be done repeatedly, over and over, building the skill without having the dangers or expense of live fire until the skill is second nature.  The more "realism", the better!  Because if your target blows apart, you see spray and gore, when the time comes and you're pulling a trigger on another human being, its just like a game.  The recipient is no longer a person, its just another "target".  And some of our recent soldiers have even described their experience as such.

Now, those techniques are put into a popular video game.  They make the game really exciting, addictivly so.   Gamers see graphic auto accidents, watch targets blow apart, targets bleed out, and the player gets sensory enjoyment and stimulation from doing these acts.  The switch gets overridden… some studies have said that sociopathy can be one of the effects.  Add some condition to override societal control, and you have trouble in the making.

One thing these games don't have are consequences, which would make the "realism" personal.  Game players never see consequences.  Things like firemen getting ill when they encounter a burnt corpse in a car.  People screaming in pain, in fear of dying, or because a loved one is gone.  Trying to stop the bleeding of an innocent person who just might bleed to death before you get them to the hospital.  Holding a wounded soldier down in a minefield so they won't trigger another one.  Looking into the vacant eyes of someone hoping to see some spark of life, knowing that they're dead.  No consequences.  Not even the one of going to prison for killing a group of people.

Consequences take "realism" to "reality".  Video game players don't get that.  It would ruin the "fun", after all.

So the gamers practice, again and again, participating in violent acts, without any repercussions or consequences.  Its all just fun and games.

Our gamer was more willing to blame target shooting at a 4-H camp or at a friend's house, availability of weapons… anything but the games.  Yes, some exposure to real weapons does come in useful.  But to coolly stand with a weapon, firing well placed shots as chaos erupts around you takes something more than simple target practice.  It takes a simulator… and the more hours on it the better.  Games provide that all too well.

Even when I provided the website and gave book titles so they could see for themselves, this person rejected this as "bull" interesting that they would rather take the word of studies done by industry flacks promoting the games over someone who makes a living studying violence.  I suppose the flacks are more "objective"?  Why would industry try to promote fantasy over reality? 

MONEY!

It's a shame when people are more concerned over a GAME than the consequences of what that game promotes.  Kind of like the October incident where a kid in Washington state is wounded by an exploding cannon and gets threats because HE might get their cherished football tradition banned.  They didn't even halt the game until he was removed from the stadium!  Never mind the fact cannon was had stress cracks in it.  Well, some people have stress cracks as well.  And when they blow… it won't make the rest of the gamers look very good either.

In all fairness, its not ALL the video games.  Some people can play violent games and don't show any psychotic tendencies.  But there are some who will, just as there will be some who copycat violent movies, freak out listening to violent music, etc.   Some people only take a little nudge, but expose one to it 24/7…?

For those gamers in the crowd, stop and think a second.  Don't you think that perhaps if you insist on more blood, guts, and gore in your game, maybe you're getting a TAD addicted to violence?  Even if you don't go out and act on it, can you envision a scenario where you might just do it?

That's what I'm talking about…

It's good to be an SOB!

© 2006 Donnaich, SOB. All rights reserved

We are the dead...

The second conversation was with a person who was horrified at the notion that, when you make the decision to go to war, you will have to face the sobering fact that you will have atrocities.

Now this person said they had dealt with sociopaths for 20 years, and was convinced I was trying to "justify" sociopaths in the military committing heinous crimes.  I was not, my intent was to make people painfully aware that when you commit troops, some of those troops commit atrocities.  You have to EXPECT it.

That's not say you don't train the troops about war crimes, set harsh punishment for infractions, and try to circumvent it.  Good commanders do that.  But you have to realize that you are turning loose people trained to kill.  Most of them are good people, who obey norms, follow orders, and restrain themselves.  But some are not, and war provides an opportunity to act upon their sociopathic tendencies.  These people enjoy it.  They present a clear threat to society, and have to be dealt with, swiftly.  Mahmoudiya ring any bells? 

But even if you hang every single one of these people, and would be justified in doing so, someone else who is NOT sociopathic may still commit an atrocity, because you have placed them in a situation that breeds that behaviour.  War IS an atrocity. 

Consider guerrilla warfare. You can't see your enemy normally, they are nowhere and everywhere, and your buddies are slowly being killed.  What about the otherwise normal soldier, who, through the course of battle, under the stresses of fatigue and constant danger, sees a comrade die and snaps?  Some will get PTSD, some will go pacifist, and others... as they said in Apocalypse Now "His methods are unsound."   Haditha is an example.  A soldier is killed, and the unit goes temporarily insane, shooting and killing anything that moves.  It happens.

I did not say NOT to punish them... they've crossed over acceptable behavior.  But the reason they did, the root cause, is because they were PLACED in that situation. IF there had been no war, they would not have been sent there. The Marines would not have been ambushed; they'd all probably still be smoking and joking at the base PX.  And those Iraqis would still be alive.

General Curtis Lemay said about his firebombing campaigns in WWII "Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier."

War is not a John Wayne movie, where everyone is a good old well balanced all American boy and they obey norms like good little soldiers. They do not. Do not expect otherwise. It is not excusing it, it is not condoning it: it is the reality of war. That is part and parcel of what you do when you "unleash the dogs of war". If you think we can send people off to war and not have anybody go off the deep end, you are sadly mistaken. And you are just as guilty for whatever they do.

Whether its "sociopathy", blind rage, grand strategy or temporary insanity, atrocities are going to happen. Because once you enable someone to unleash "the beast", as I've heard some call it, they may not be able to stop it. Conditioning allows that beast to be unleashed, war creates the environment to actually do it. 

Committing our troops to an unnecessary war costs us in ways we don't even think of.  Because what doesn't happen THERE could happen HERE.  Cases in point: Timothy McVeigh, who felt the annihilation of the retreating Iraqi convoy in Desert Storm was one of the pivotal points in his life.  Then there's Richard Ramirez, the "Night Stalker". One of his influences was a relative, a decorated Special Forces trooper, who raped and tortured "Viet Cong women", took pictures of it, and showed/told young Ramirez all about it. The guy beat his wife, was arrested, jailed, and finally committed suicide. But young Ramirez fantasized about it, and his tendencies manifested.  The violence of war sometimes comes home to roost.

Military installations are becoming concerned over the number of incidents of suicides, murders, and abuse cases they are seeing involving our veterans.  Some of these veterans can't switch it off anymore.  Sadly, our defenders, given inadequate counseling and treatment, can become problems.  Add to them the ones no longer being filtered out for prior psychological problems, the racists joining to be ready for the race war, etc., and we are setting ourselves up for some really bad incidents in the future.

It's a bad enough problem for our professionally trained people.  Then, we get the unprofessionally conditioned ones.  That leads in to my fourth part.