American Military Industrial Complex is pure gold for some and death for most
In September 2009, the Wall Street Journal published : “Obama is Pushing Israel to War”
In February 2012, the American Spectator, referring to President Obama, published: ”Pushing Israel to War”
Based on the headlines, I understand that Obama has been pushing Israel to wage war on Iran for 3 years. It appears Obama has failed miserably to achieve his goal. Perhaps Obama was too busy cleaning up the financial mess left by the crooks in the financial markets (Chuck Schumer, Goldman Sachs) to fulfill the need for ordering more military equipment. (Senator Schumer is behind a lot the Israeli PAC money and also pushed Fannie Mae into making the risky loans–he was the architect along with Barney Frank of the risky mortgage approval by Congress–unfortunately, there are many scapegoats and Schumer seems to have escaped his fair share of blame.)
War has always been good for those making military hardware but very bad for families who loose their children. For the next war, can we draft the children of Lockheed and Northrup Executives (and all the financial investment firms) first? Perhaps we’ll see less headlines from the WSJ and American Spectator goading Obama to spend more on military endeavors. But maybe not– for some money is more important than their own family.
I wish President Eisenhower was alive to give his fairwell speech again. Just in recent history, we went to war against Iraq to kick out a dictator (Sadaam the guy that the US CIA installed). Before that, we went to war against Iraq to eject them from Kuwait (after we told our dictator Sadaam that the US had no interest in whether Iraq invades Kuwait). Before that we helped Iraq shoot chemical weapons into Iran because the Iranians removed the dictator that we installed (Shah). Before that we gave the Afghans stingers and trained Osama bin Laden (who later we had to kill). So many have died correlating to rise stock of military industrial companies and Goldman Sachs etc. War is very good for the economy (or a few in the economy).
The military industrial complex is looking for a possible Israeli-Iranian war as economic miracle for sagging profit margins.
Update: I was glad to see a headline that Obama told the GOP candidates to stop beating the drums of war against Iran. Clearly many in our society want another war but I don’t believe another American should die for gold or glory or god in the middle east. I’m glad we have someone smarter than the last President at the helm.
President Obama and The Whistle Blower Movie? The Answer is Rick Santorum?
Have you ever heard an attorney say that law is not about morality? I have and believe they must teach it in school. We as a society foster institutions that are so afraid of God that they believe morality has no place in our laws, government, and schools.
Each of us has unique beliefs and perhaps our best sense of morality is reflected in what we believe to be God. And because morality (or doing right) is so strong, God (in name) became an abused concept to justify all that is immoral throughout history. And thus many turn against God. We justify this rejection of morality using complex language, misdirection and false information. Our legal system believing that morality has nothing to do with the law is proof that our framework for society has gone down a path that is wrong. In the US at least, we rely on the US Supreme Court to interject that morality at some high level and hope that it filters down in reshaped interpretations of laws.
I think ever elementary school student is taught that evil triumphs when good men doing nothing–Edmund Burke, right? Doing nothing is a result of self-rationalization or mass propaganda that it is my/your duty to protect/honor the law– forgetting that morality has been severed from the law by those who wish to pervert it for self-benefit. (Of course, if morality does come in to play, whose morality causes even more confusion. But I believe aside from all the various colors of morality that the morality of lawyer is more uniformly the same– a morality based on Gold and Glory–the profession just attracts greedy and vain people.)
I was thinking of the phrase that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. (An aside: which pays more –high school history teacher or banker who rips off the public or corrupt politician? And a big question, why?)
When I watched the movie “The Whistle Blower” today I thought history repeats itself too often. (I am not sure about the accuracy of the movie as I understand most of worst actions were done by Russian soldiers under the UN. But I do believe that good people who worked for the UN and the US Government had to stand by and do nothing as they sought Gold and Glory.) A concept of immunity (a legal justification) could be used for inaction and this movie showed graphically the conflict of having laws that are not guided by morality.
In the movie, the phrase “for the greater good” was invoked at times to justify terrible actions. That’s why I thought of the headlines today about Obama talking to the AJPAC about how the US will protect Israel. Does that mean we will protect Israel when they are wrong or just when they are right? Does that mean, for the greater good, we look at the world like a lawyer and see no morality. President Obama gets picked on frequently because he is in the spotlight but the stories are repeated a million times over for everyone not in the spotlight — a story of selling out one’s sense of morality so that the greater good will prevail. The AJPAC are lobbyist offering money during an election year and the connections to Obama making promises are easy to draw. But I honestly thought Obama might be different. I thought he would rather fail to be re-elected than to set a bad example of yielding to money and influence brokers. Perhaps even an idealistic President can focus on the short-term and lose sight of the fact the lobbyists and money have won again in the case of the AJPAC, as with the banks in the recent financial mess, and with US contractors working for State Department, and so on and on…..
Even though I fault Obama for yielding to the AJPAC, the lobbyist and money usually win not because of good men in Congress stood by and do nothing, but because we have stood by and done nothing. We continue to elect people to our Government who are motivated Gold and Glory. I would not be afraid of electing someone motivated by God, except those that cite God as a cover for the pursuit of Gold and Glory. We had it right a couple hundreds years ago with the Constitution that we accept all religions, not reject all religions. Unfortunately, we have let the lawyers confuse us with rhetoric, false choices, and false facts. I would like to see a little bit more morality in our Supreme Court and laws based on common morality. And a lot less lawyers in our society.
We all get one vote still and I hope we vote thinking of our society in human terms. The economic problems were cause by those that are corrupt and they give us another deception– to vote for the one who can fix the economy. Our focus, in my mind, should always be on the our sense of humanity, morality, and the fact we are all one family as everything else is a patch. As in the cited movie and in real life, we cannot build a strong economy or a strong society based on pursuit of Gold and Glory. And certainly we know in God’s name for Gold and Glory does not work either.
I voted for Obama last time because I saw a spark of hope but now I only see that spark in Rick Santorum. (But out of nation of 300 million, why do I look to a spark from a man who wrongly justifies the Crusades and incorrectly cites history (Rick Santorum)). Maybe a miracle will happen? I rule out Obama as that miracle and the only other person running is Romeny–but I just don’t see it.
Obama the First 3 Years: Proof we need to amend the constitution from the bottom up
I was thinking about Obama taking office having to deal with the 3Gs of life. He had a hurdle to climb and he was virtually castrated politically before he even took office. He came into office not on boat, not treading water, but chained to lead weight in an ocean of corruption and systems falling apart.
As many probably remember, Hillary Clinton ran a tough and brutal campaign. She wanted the Glory of being the first woman president. In many ways, I think she is similar to Dick Cheney. But in some ways she is very different — specifically to women. Hillary used a campaign that got middle age and elderly women across America to chant in unison “I want to see a woman President before I die.” This is a very power and emotional statement. She harnessed the internal pains of generations of educated women who experienced discrimination and shaped that pain into pure hatred for Obama. The editor of Salon magazine was spitting crazy political rants about this too. No matter where you lived, you probably knew women who literally cried when they came to realize that Obama had won the democratic party nomination. You could see that Hillary in her thirst for Glory took the democratic party to the brink of destruction.
I assume that Obama had to make many compromises to overcome this hatred hurdle. Women across America were bitter. The majority of them probably did not even realize that they were mere puppets with the strings being pulled by Hillary. Because of all the compromises, Hillary effectively castrated Obama before he took office.
Upon taking office, Obama had to deal with the growing financial crisis. The path forward had already been partially decided by the bailout crafted by George Bush. In the pursuit of gold, bankers and politicians across America had taken us to the brink of economic failure. But many had become rich along the way. There was no clear path for Obama and no win-win situation. Many of those that helped Obama get into office were part of the machinery that created or fostered the housing melt-down. Specifically, Barney Frank and Schumer were the architects of Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac’s program to loan money to virtually anyone for any amount. The Republicans contributed by being the architects of deregulation. The rich and powerful contributed by placing their Goldman Sach plants into the Federal Reserve and US Treasury Department. So Obama was gutted before he took office. There was and will never be mass prosecutions of any body for ripping of the American tax payer because the list of guilty is very long and goes from Wall Street to the White House.
Even before Obama took office, he was questioned constantly about his beliefs in God and which God. Well the back and forth was never very substantive. This was the Republican party trying to play dirty politics. Anything to win. As Speaker Gringrich clearly illustrates even a belief in a christian Gold does not mean you have good moral values.
As with every major failure, deflection is a key to recovery. We have the lazy overpaid government workers, the unfair trade practices by China, and countries like Greece who can’t get their economic act together. While this has been going on, the rich have been profiting even more and the same politicians stay in office.
It is obvious that our political and economic systems need real change and Obama has not delivered. Perhaps he would have if came into office with the united backing of the democratic party. Perhaps he has the makings of a great president. But one things is certain–the change we got was more of the same.
I believe the only way to change the system for the better is first get rid of corrupt politicians. It is about time for a line item veto and term limits for Senators. We need to amend the constitution again.
Goldman Sachs profiting off Mortgage Bank Settlement? Obama selling out Americans to help Banks Again and win election?
The principles of Gold and Glory are hard at work in the news again–the mortgage settlements with the banks. This settlement has President Obama’s personal signature on it. Instead of letting the various state attorney generals sue banks, the Federal Government has orchestrated a universal settlement. As I understand it, the Banks are going to put aside a certain amount of money to help solve the mortgage problems of those that would go into foreclosure. The dollar about is in the BILLIONS. Obama has forced the banks to pay up, right? Struggling homeowners get help engineered by Obama. The newspapers reports what are suppose to happen and Obama looks good. But the fine footnotes and what actually happen will be worked out by lawyers….sometimes instinct is better than printed words–all of the settlement results helping Americans is a fairy tale – a fantasy–you are a fool if you believe, despite all the recent history of gaming the system and corruption in the financial markets, that Goldman Sachs and Bank of America and Politicians are looking out for America.
First, the banks that will or want to settle have been reselling the problem mortgages to others on the cheap to financial market manipulators such as Goldman Sachs. The banks who settle with the government may not have anybody to help because the mortgages were transferred to Goldman Sachs and others. Goldman Sach didn’t sign the settlement — Bank of America and other big banks did or will. This is where it helps to have insiders such Obama and Geitner in the government. Its a win-win. Goldman Sach makes money (they made money creating the problem and they are making money cleaningup the problem). Bank of America takes the lightest punishment possible and is on the road to recovery. Obama get political capital for the next election because the wheels of the economy are moving again. Geitner (the guy who can claim TurboTax software confused him to make a mistake) gets paid off when he returns to the public sector–possibly the next CEO of Goldman Sachs?
Headlines of deals are usually facades of different underyling actions–that is we get lied to with believable lies. Like when Tim Geitner blamed TurboTax for making tax “mistakes”– TurboTax and taxes can be confusing. But then again it a little strange given Geitner’s background to use the Turbotax excuse–Geitner was probably telling the best lie he could. Capitalism is what many in America believe make our country great and it may be partly true. But what it is certainly true is that Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Obama have been hard at working looking out for themselves and hopefully (Obama – Hope 2008?) by accident, by happenstance, by serendipity, by random statistical chance, there will be some good for many Americans and our country as a whole. (My views of course assume the trickle down theory f helping the rich to help the poor is a false theory– that Ronald Reagan was standing in front of toilet when he came up with the Trickle Down theory and was suffering from enlarged prostate problems.)
In the name of God Award-caging, rape, murder OF sisters, daughters, wives BY brothers, fathers, and husbands
A in the name of God award goes to the those who treat women like property in the name of Islam.
History lessons in schools across America taught us the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the Crusades for christianity to reclaim the Holy Land were in the name of God or for God. I don’t anybody who participated in these historical events had it in writing from God, but nevertheless, there are enough documents to show that the historians were right. In the name of God because this was an effective tool to motivate large numbers of people to do things.
You can see this invocation of a belief or understanding throughout history to motivate people to do serious things that are often horrible in nature.
But the goldless class should always look at who is invoking this belief. If God were to want me to kill someone, I would assume that God would personally tell me to do so rather than go through an intermediary. Similarly, if God wanted me to vote for Newt Gringrich, I assume God would tell me instead of relying on a few to spread that message.
Sometimes the message is too complex and it seems like we should listen to those relaying the message. In recent times, the economists are beating up on Greece for their bad economic policies. Conveniently this gives a more comfortable headline for those with Gold. We start to create time and distance and lessen the anger of the causes of the financial crisis. We divert our attention away from those with Gold who created the mess and focus on least powerful member – a sacrificial lamb – to appease those they can be confused but are angry.
So it is that long ago the worst Popes of the Catholic church had sexual orgies and squandered gold and order deaths of non-conformers. And possibly several hundred years ago, Islam was in practice a more humane religion because the Catholic Church had become drunk with wine and sex. The Crusades to retake the Holy Land may have save the Catholic Church from itself but it certainly was an evil act.
So now we have a few believers of Islam that spread the message of God or use the name of God. These few make the headlines in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Headlines such as women daring to drive a car in Saudi Arabia. The death sentence by the government for the crime of adultery because a woman was raped (and therefore committed adultery.) And of course laws that a lawyer must have drafted — the requirement that women seeking judicial justice must have male witnesses including for crimes of rape.
The Relevant Headline News:
‘End of virginity’ if women drive, Saudi cleric warns
Saudi Woman Driver Sentenced to 10 Lashes After King Grants Women the Vote
Saudi Women, in a Shift, Sue for Right to Drive
Pakistani Muslim rapist admits women have no rights or opinions in Islam
Detour: meaning and other meanings of the word “Glory”
Language is an interesting concept for me. We go from zero vocabulary to being able to communicate our thoughts via sounds or visual displays. I’ve always thought that we were hard-wired for communication because it happens so naturally after we are born. But often times we misunderstand each other because some words have many shades of complexity or contextual meaning. So it is, I have discovered today, with the word “glory.”
I noticed that “glory to God” or “God’s glory” are common expressions by searching the word “glory.” And then I realized that my personal use of the word “glory” was in the context of some specific wars from a long time ago. I had no choice but to look up the word in the dictionary and I realized the word “glory” has shades of meaning that depending on context could be a positive or negative word. I think in the expression “God’s glory,” glory can partly be described with words happiness and beauty. But in the context of this blog, I use the word “glory” to have a meaning that can be partly described as a psychological need to be special or better than others; and in this regard, I am in the world of glory which takes on a serious dark selfish sense. Thus, glory in the sense of winning a football game is beyond this blog. I really do consider glory in the sense of the simple concept of a bully beating someone else up because it makes her feel better. (I remember the politically correct grammar – switch him to her to show no preference- but it seems awkward because most bullies are hims. But I defer to the Nancy Pelosi and Salon Magazine fans of the world.)
This whole post is becoming an ordeal akin to splitting hairs with a razor blade with lots of cuts to my finger. I chose to use word “glory” because I was taught this in high school history class. I think the original authors of the term “God, Gold, and Glory” could have used a better word than glory, but it was probably they probably wanted an easy to remember phrase — the three “Gs.” So out of respect of those believer’s in God’s Glory, realize I am focused on a meaning that has nothing to do with goodness, beauty or happiness.
And as an aside, I was expose to the 3 Gs in high school, but I found that is part of at least one school’s first grade class. I found this amazing because most adults do not remember or never knew the 3 Gs and its relevance to major historical events. I probably should look further because I can’t believe that first graders in Colorado are that advanced–I must have misunderstood something but here is the link.
And now that I think about the word “glory” more, I remember people in San Francisco sometimes using the word “glory hole.” I think I will stop analyzing the meaning of the word “glory” at this point.
Bing dictionary meaning of glory (does Microsoft really pay people to write definitions of words and how much does it pay?)
Free Online dictionary meaning of glory (looks identical to Micros0ft’s dictionary — is this another case of Windows copying Apple again?)
And only because I admire the writers of Wikipedia so much:
Wikipedia definition of glory (just noticed that they specifically define a religious category of the term)
I think tomorrow, I will review the meaning of the word “God” because I am curious if the Microsoft dictionary copied the free dictionary again. I also am curious how those Wikipedia authors described this word that has so much meaning to some and none to others.
President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address – Congressional Insider Trading Corruption: Gold and Glory
Some of you may have watched the 2012 State of the Union speech by President Obama where he stated that corrupt practices such as insider trading by members of congress should be made illegal. Every school in America should show a 30 second clip of the speech because it says so much about what it is wrong with our society.
First, it gets a “Glory” award because President Obama obviously used the banning proposal to tell the American people that he is one of the good guys and he is fixing the system. The ban proposal was nothing more than self-promotion for the purpose of winning the next election. The relevant factors to consider are:
(1) President Obama knew about this corrupt practice since he was formerly in the US Senate and their is no record of him proposing a ban on the practice until the January 2012 State of the Union Speech;
(2) President Obama has quite obviously been using all the tools of his administration to time events and make strategic trades (in the abstract sense) to make himself look like he solving the problems;
(3) Treasury Secretary Geitner has been supposedly working on solving the financial crisis for years with no mention of this corrupt practice by Congress needing to be banned;
(4) No Federal Reserve Board has testified to Congress that this corrupt practice by Congress must end;
(5) President Obama has a trademarked approach of leading from behind (presumably with the notion that hindsight is 20/20) and pandering to public sentiment with the politically safest proposals;
(6) Isn’t it just plain absurd or mind-boggling that Congress has been allowed to do insider trading (clearly our government system and Constitution needs to be reformed if crooks have the power to decide if their own actions can be considered illegal).
Second it gets the “Gold” award because clearly all of this discussion about Congressional insider trading has been an admission that Congress has been using their privileged position to profit at the expense of others. (The Information-Caste-System)
Hopefully someone out there publishes a list of stock trades made during the bank bailout. Did Bank of America get a bail-out after members of Congress bought their relatively cheap stock? Did friends and family of Congress buy puts (puts is a financial instrument traded like stock) to bet that certain brokerages would go bankrupt?
American media often criticizes Putin for how he controls information for political power but if we can step back, perhaps, our own politicians (in general–there are a few honest ones) are not different than Putnin.
In any case, all this was prompted by recent news stories that you may have already read.
Mainstream Links (Mass-Market Appeal or Deceptive Intentions)
US White House– 2012 State of the Union Address (enhanced video)
Bloomberg- Congressional Insider-Trading Ban Gains Bipartisan Support
NBC- House to Reconsider Banning Insider Trading
CNN- Rediscover Insider Trading
Politico- STOCK Act passes Senate by vote of 96-3
Quality Links (Thought Provoking , Informative, or Intended to Educate)
New York Times– 2012 State of the Union Address (NOT enhanced)
Radio Vice Online Article on Insider Trading
Cantor to Senate: Ban insider trading in the White House too [VIDEO]
CNN- Insider trading bill may scrutinize Obama administration