The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel, responsible for military fiascos, hundreds of thousands of deaths and war crimes in the Middle East, are now plotting to attack Iran.
The Israeli government, much like that of the US, is being run by suicidal ideologues. The rest of us have no choice but to watch our own demise, by their arrogant and blind hands. Armageddon they may seek, but Jesus and the rapture they will not receive. Trusting our fate to a bronze age apocalyptic fairytale, be it of Hebrew, Assyrian or Persian origin, is as logical as believing in Puff the Magic Dragon, though far less enlightening or entertaining.
For people who claim to believe that Jesus is returning any day now, the Evangelicals of influence and authority sure seem intent in getting their share of The Earthly Goodies right now.
It's almost as if they are hedging their bets, and that's the charitable interpretation. Either that, or their faith isn't as strong as they proclaim.
Hypocrisy is a not expressly said to be a sin in the Bible. One could interpret the Jesus quote about rocks and glass houses as an admonition against hypocrisy, but I’ve often said that the most fervent Christians understand metaphor, including those of their own religion, the least of anyone.
Jennie – So well said and it is great to see these views laid out so clearly.
The Christian ideologues in the US government who are bent on expediting Armageddon and forcing God to deliver the rapture is a level of hubris and stupidity to be expected from these. The Christian religion demands the absolute belief that Jesus will save them, read knowing, read pretending. Once the pretending starts, opinions can be transfigured into knowledge whenever needed. Fundamentalists of all stripes see pretending as an everlasting and never ending miracle.
Chris, I am becoming more seriously concerned with the likelihood that in addition to what I call this: "Quiet American" dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy --- that the investigation of the Jan. 6th political coup d'tate could turn-out to actually be the second leg of real military coup d'tate conspired within the DOD and MIC's aligned/integrated political-economic and military interests for control of a full-on -- Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
While the the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol" (hereinafter referred to as the “Select Committee”) is predominantly pursuing investigations of political illegality targeted against the actions of an 'extra judical & political' nature between and against Congressional criminality, illegality and deceit.
However, IMHO, there needs to be a parallel Investigation of extra-legal Military & Corporate criminality related to, and integrated within the entire expanded power-structure of our "National Security and the Double Government" [Michael Glennon 2015].
In this expanded view, the orchestrated insertion of individuals inclined to employ violence in accomplishment of gaining power outside the boundaries of political debate and discourse is potentially and often actually beyond the pale in terms of applying covert and overt violence.
Among all of the forms of government, WIKI does not include EMPIRE as any form of government.
Between November 9th 2020 and January 20th 2021, Christopher Miller was appointed as 'Acting' Secretary of Defense, following the termination of Mark Esper.[4][32] The top Republican on House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, expressed concern that the sudden shake-up and installation of leadership at the Pentagon based on political fealty instead of expertise "endanger U.S. national security."[33]
Miller's chief of staff as Acting Secretary of Defense was Kash Patel, a former aide to Congressman Devin Nunes. Patel is known for efforts to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[34]
Additionally, Lt. General Kevin Kellogg, is a former United States government official and a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army.[1] He previously served as the National Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, and as the Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council in the Trump administration. He served as National Security Advisor on an acting basis following the resignation of Gen. Michael T. Flynn.
Of course there is a long-time history of Generals like, Lt. Gen William G. Boykin, and many practiced with what might be called Special Ops Warfare who are not beyond going off the tracks, like the fictional Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in "Apocalypse Now".
Emperors, or "Empire-Thinkers" are quite common among the upper ranks of Generals who may be recruited into the realm of super-aggressive, messianic, power-grabbers, which is also common within the pyramidal heights of Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, uber-arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
The "Accumulation by Dispossession" [David Harvey] of massive powers, wealth, and convoluted DSM-5 personalites, has oft led to Political Power manipulations which are ultimately resolved by political means --- as was the Attack on our Capital. But the next time, may well be FULL-ON Violence, rather than beyond just a Trump-level coup d'état.
Additionally, both DOD 'acting' Secretary of Defense, DOD Inspector General, and many others within this "Quiet American" dual-party EMPIRE very readily available to have the Jan. 6th Investigation subpoena, Christopher Miller and many of the coup d'tate leaders of the twice criminal parties of the Empire:
This cancerous Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy — is not going to go away 'quietly'.
As the wonderful, Earl Shorris wrote in the December 2011 issue of "Harper's" on his death-bed article "American Vespers", when his 'Good Doctor' assessed his condition — "they waited too long":
“Without ethics, politics has no limits. America broke the rules of
living systems, and lost its balance. All the oxygen flowed to a smaller
and smaller section of the body politic. The history is brief and
unquestionable: close to toppling, the society momentarily pulled itself
upright, and then became even less ethical, less balanced, more
endangered than ever as a lawless financial system came back from death,
and like a foolish patient after a heart bypass operation, continued in
its old ways." ---- all to no avail.
And this:
The magic of Empire, and of cancer, is the hiding and metastasizing, as Earl Shorris died writing in his last "Harper's" article, "American Vespers -- the ebbing of the body politic":
[excerpts]
"The disease that Reagan brought into the American mind was like the terrifying shadow the patient sees in X-rays clipped to a light box. It came from nowhere and appeared in the body of the country. There is a magic quality to the decline of men and democracies. Historians and histologists study the tissue, identify markers, but only after the decline has begun can they do their work. No doctor, for all that she might wish to heal the heart or soul, can predict the onset of the fouling of the tiniest part. One cell must be the first to sicken and then sicken another. The beginning is the magic."
[snip]
"In the eighteenth century Francis Hutcheson had said that the greatest good is the happiness of others, and Reagan’s philosophers—Kristol, Cheney, Bush, Podhoretz, Falwell, Strauss, and Bloom—had said it is not so. Benevolence disgusted them. They spoke of natural law, but what really occupied their thoughts was a return to the Hobbesian state of nature in which every man is pitted against every other and the only duty a person has is to himself.
Without ethics, politics has no limits. America broke the rules of living systems, and lost its balance. All the oxygen flowed to a smaller and smaller section of the body politic. The history is brief and unquestionable: close to toppling, the society momentarily pulled itself upright, and then became even less ethical, less balanced, more endangered than ever as a lawless financial system came back from death, and like a foolish patient after a heart bypass operation, continued in its old ways. With no ethical component to national politics, President Obama could deliver his 2011 State of the Union speech without ever mentioning the word “poverty,” although one in every five American children lived in poverty. Without a commitment to Hutcheson’s idea of the greatest good, which is at the core of the original American philosophy in Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence, this may no longer be the brilliant experiment. If happiness is for the few and it produces unemployment approaching that of the Great Depression, then the shadow of evening is here.
Death is the moment when evening passes into night. I know. There is no surprise, and it often comes after a long sickness that is worse than death. When I died, I died of many things: the failing systems; the weakening of age; the exhaustion of the long war against dying. Finally, I succumbed to the lack of ethics in a California hospital, killed by filth and neglect.
I have wished for many years to be a physician to my beloved country. The means to care for it is clear. I was revived by love and ethics. And I am not unique: no man, no woman is a metaphor; that is the place of gods. I do not know who will take America in their arms to revive her.
Note how Israel suddenly came out in favor of Ukraine in recent days, after having previously maintained neutrality.
I suppose that was a show of solidarity, now that the United States is likely to give Israel the war on Iran that it has craved for so long.
The Israeli government, much like that of the US, is being run by suicidal ideologues. The rest of us have no choice but to watch our own demise, by their arrogant and blind hands. Armageddon they may seek, but Jesus and the rapture they will not receive. Trusting our fate to a bronze age apocalyptic fairytale, be it of Hebrew, Assyrian or Persian origin, is as logical as believing in Puff the Magic Dragon, though far less enlightening or entertaining.
For people who claim to believe that Jesus is returning any day now, the Evangelicals of influence and authority sure seem intent in getting their share of The Earthly Goodies right now.
It's almost as if they are hedging their bets, and that's the charitable interpretation. Either that, or their faith isn't as strong as they proclaim.
Hypocrisy is a not expressly said to be a sin in the Bible. One could interpret the Jesus quote about rocks and glass houses as an admonition against hypocrisy, but I’ve often said that the most fervent Christians understand metaphor, including those of their own religion, the least of anyone.
Jennie – So well said and it is great to see these views laid out so clearly.
The Christian ideologues in the US government who are bent on expediting Armageddon and forcing God to deliver the rapture is a level of hubris and stupidity to be expected from these. The Christian religion demands the absolute belief that Jesus will save them, read knowing, read pretending. Once the pretending starts, opinions can be transfigured into knowledge whenever needed. Fundamentalists of all stripes see pretending as an everlasting and never ending miracle.
Chris, I am becoming more seriously concerned with the likelihood that in addition to what I call this: "Quiet American" dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy --- that the investigation of the Jan. 6th political coup d'tate could turn-out to actually be the second leg of real military coup d'tate conspired within the DOD and MIC's aligned/integrated political-economic and military interests for control of a full-on -- Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
While the the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol" (hereinafter referred to as the “Select Committee”) is predominantly pursuing investigations of political illegality targeted against the actions of an 'extra judical & political' nature between and against Congressional criminality, illegality and deceit.
However, IMHO, there needs to be a parallel Investigation of extra-legal Military & Corporate criminality related to, and integrated within the entire expanded power-structure of our "National Security and the Double Government" [Michael Glennon 2015].
In this expanded view, the orchestrated insertion of individuals inclined to employ violence in accomplishment of gaining power outside the boundaries of political debate and discourse is potentially and often actually beyond the pale in terms of applying covert and overt violence.
Among all of the forms of government, WIKI does not include EMPIRE as any form of government.
Between November 9th 2020 and January 20th 2021, Christopher Miller was appointed as 'Acting' Secretary of Defense, following the termination of Mark Esper.[4][32] The top Republican on House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mac Thornberry, expressed concern that the sudden shake-up and installation of leadership at the Pentagon based on political fealty instead of expertise "endanger U.S. national security."[33]
Miller's chief of staff as Acting Secretary of Defense was Kash Patel, a former aide to Congressman Devin Nunes. Patel is known for efforts to discredit investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.[34]
Additionally, Lt. General Kevin Kellogg, is a former United States government official and a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army.[1] He previously served as the National Security Advisor to Vice President Mike Pence, and as the Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the United States National Security Council in the Trump administration. He served as National Security Advisor on an acting basis following the resignation of Gen. Michael T. Flynn.
Of course there is a long-time history of Generals like, Lt. Gen William G. Boykin, and many practiced with what might be called Special Ops Warfare who are not beyond going off the tracks, like the fictional Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in "Apocalypse Now".
Emperors, or "Empire-Thinkers" are quite common among the upper ranks of Generals who may be recruited into the realm of super-aggressive, messianic, power-grabbers, which is also common within the pyramidal heights of Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, uber-arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy.
The "Accumulation by Dispossession" [David Harvey] of massive powers, wealth, and convoluted DSM-5 personalites, has oft led to Political Power manipulations which are ultimately resolved by political means --- as was the Attack on our Capital. But the next time, may well be FULL-ON Violence, rather than beyond just a Trump-level coup d'état.
Additionally, both DOD 'acting' Secretary of Defense, DOD Inspector General, and many others within this "Quiet American" dual-party EMPIRE very readily available to have the Jan. 6th Investigation subpoena, Christopher Miller and many of the coup d'tate leaders of the twice criminal parties of the Empire:
This cancerous Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal Child-Killing & War-Starting EMPIRE, controlled by the ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe", and "Evil (not-so) Geniuses" [Kurt Andersen] — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy — is not going to go away 'quietly'.
As the wonderful, Earl Shorris wrote in the December 2011 issue of "Harper's" on his death-bed article "American Vespers", when his 'Good Doctor' assessed his condition — "they waited too long":
“Without ethics, politics has no limits. America broke the rules of
living systems, and lost its balance. All the oxygen flowed to a smaller
and smaller section of the body politic. The history is brief and
unquestionable: close to toppling, the society momentarily pulled itself
upright, and then became even less ethical, less balanced, more
endangered than ever as a lawless financial system came back from death,
and like a foolish patient after a heart bypass operation, continued in
its old ways." ---- all to no avail.
And this:
The magic of Empire, and of cancer, is the hiding and metastasizing, as Earl Shorris died writing in his last "Harper's" article, "American Vespers -- the ebbing of the body politic":
[excerpts]
"The disease that Reagan brought into the American mind was like the terrifying shadow the patient sees in X-rays clipped to a light box. It came from nowhere and appeared in the body of the country. There is a magic quality to the decline of men and democracies. Historians and histologists study the tissue, identify markers, but only after the decline has begun can they do their work. No doctor, for all that she might wish to heal the heart or soul, can predict the onset of the fouling of the tiniest part. One cell must be the first to sicken and then sicken another. The beginning is the magic."
[snip]
"In the eighteenth century Francis Hutcheson had said that the greatest good is the happiness of others, and Reagan’s philosophers—Kristol, Cheney, Bush, Podhoretz, Falwell, Strauss, and Bloom—had said it is not so. Benevolence disgusted them. They spoke of natural law, but what really occupied their thoughts was a return to the Hobbesian state of nature in which every man is pitted against every other and the only duty a person has is to himself.
Without ethics, politics has no limits. America broke the rules of living systems, and lost its balance. All the oxygen flowed to a smaller and smaller section of the body politic. The history is brief and unquestionable: close to toppling, the society momentarily pulled itself upright, and then became even less ethical, less balanced, more endangered than ever as a lawless financial system came back from death, and like a foolish patient after a heart bypass operation, continued in its old ways. With no ethical component to national politics, President Obama could deliver his 2011 State of the Union speech without ever mentioning the word “poverty,” although one in every five American children lived in poverty. Without a commitment to Hutcheson’s idea of the greatest good, which is at the core of the original American philosophy in Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence, this may no longer be the brilliant experiment. If happiness is for the few and it produces unemployment approaching that of the Great Depression, then the shadow of evening is here.
Death is the moment when evening passes into night. I know. There is no surprise, and it often comes after a long sickness that is worse than death. When I died, I died of many things: the failing systems; the weakening of age; the exhaustion of the long war against dying. Finally, I succumbed to the lack of ethics in a California hospital, killed by filth and neglect.
I have wished for many years to be a physician to my beloved country. The means to care for it is clear. I was revived by love and ethics. And I am not unique: no man, no woman is a metaphor; that is the place of gods. I do not know who will take America in their arms to revive her.
No nation is forever."
Full article:
https://harpers.org/archive...
There can be no lasting regulation of those “animal spirits” (or more
accurately, “carnivorous crimes”) of a crony capitalist cancer of
Empire, which makes faux-profits by dumping massive 'negative externality costs"
onto all others.
My attempt to access the report on the CIA resulted in: “PDF.js v1.1.215 (build: c9a7498)
Message: Unexpected server response (0) while retrieving PDF "https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/sscistudyciasdetentioninterrogationprogrames.pdf" “
FYI- I managed to access the pdf via the link you shared.
Suggestion: If you are copying the link and paste’ing into browzer, remember to drop (exclude) the “ “ “.
Got it 🙄
This is the link from my iOS machine: https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/sscistudyciasdetentioninterrogationprogrames.pdf
It works on my IOS machine; try https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/sscistudyciasdetentioninterrogationprogrames.pdf