Rational observations of the American experiment, thoughts about common goals, and suggestions for reaching them.
National Debt….and I ain’t talkin’ money
Advocacy for Increasingly Fringe Elements
Bidenistan
“The strong take what they can and the weak yield what they must”….a paraphrase from Thucydides’ Melian dialog. In the Peloponnesian War, the Athenians backed the Melians into a corner and offered them their lives…..with conditions.
Perhaps that’s the new reality that we must accept….not that we’re worried about our very lives but life itself may be changing – and soon. Many see signs of the end of empire and the debacle in Kabul is the flashing neon light to confirm it.
Camelot is on life support and may disappear while we watch. The Military Industrial Complex appears to have won a Pyrrhic victory….certainly not in Afghanistan but rather against the American people. In short, the MIC has once again taken lives and treasure and given….NOTHING. Well, maybe the 1% can claim some profit.
When James Madison penned the US Constitution, he understood the danger of maintaining a standing army so the founding fathers restricted the ability of the central government to fund the military. Article I, Section 8, Clause 12, says “The Congress shall have Power To… raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years,” And that is part of the reason why the Second Amendment was and is so important. With a limited national military, the state militias were considered to “be necessary to the security of a free state.”
For generations, we operated on this philosophy with the exception of the Civil War years when 2 million men enlisted in the Union Army and 1 million served with the Confederate Army…..and, of course, during WWI.
Following the end of WWI, the US Congress repeatedly reduced the size of the military. In 1922, the Army had 12,000 officers and 125,000 enlisted men and it operated on an annual budget of $300 million (a little under $5 billion in 2021 dollars); manpower and budget would remain at these levels until 1936. During this period, the only permanent foreign army garrison maintained by the US was at Tientsin, China, from 1912 until 1938; it was a 1000 man force. There was a force of similar strength dispatched from the Philippines to Shanghai for five months’ duty in 1932 and other than this the Marines provided a small presence at a few bases mainly in the Caribbean. The isolationist tendencies of the US contributed to the small military as did the founding commitment to avoid (as much as possible) a standing army.
In June 1939, prior to the Nazi occupation of Poland but with the handwriting on the wall, the US still fielded only the 19th (some say 17th) largest army in the world.
In 2021, the Pentagon budget is $704 billion and our military maintains 800 bases in 70 countries….perhaps we should now reduce the bases to <800 and the countries to 69? We account for 39% of ALL military spending world-wide….followed by China (13%), India (3.7%), and Russia (3.1%).
It seems that victory in WWII was a double-edged sword. In a four year period, our military swelled to eight million men and women, we had established bases all over the world, we became all too aware of the possible Russian threat. Additionally, we realized that war is good for business and we became enamored with our own power.
US businesses had a history of using the military to achieve their own objectives. If you’re not familiar with the story of Smedley Butler, read his book, “War is a Racket”. Butler was a 34-year career Marine. At his death, he was the most decorated US Marine in history and had reached the rank of Major General….the highest rank at the time. Butler’s book describes the Imperialism animating America’s foreign policy and the use of the military during his career.
Here’s a quote: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers.” – Smedley Butler.
In his 1961 farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower pointed out that prior to WWII, the US had no armament industry and while he recognized the need for war machines, he warned of the dangers of turning war into a full-time business:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. -Dwight Eisenhower.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what we have done. We have let politicians and lobbyists convince us of the need to spend the lives of our youth and our future economic health to maintain a bloated empire that creates new enemies wherever it goes. The repercussions reverberate over and over and we do not learn from our mistakes.
And now? Now we have Afghanistan. If you haven’t seen the video posted by Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, take a look. I don’t know what to make of Lt. Col. Scheller or what he plans but it appears that he just resigned after a 17-year career that took place entirely during our last forever war. Scheller demanded some accountability from his superiors after the debacle of a withdrawal that left more dead and injured personnel, the abandonment of both Bagram and enough arms and equipment to kill many more Americans…with our own weapons.
I guess Scheller finally had his “Network” moment….you know, that point where you tell your superiors and your representatives that you’re mad as hell and you’re not going to take it anymore.
911 Emergency in the Empire
On September 11, 2001, I was at work when word of the attacks on the Towers reached us. We all gathered around a 19 inch TV to watch events unfold. That day, as it became clear what had happened, I typed up a little memorandum to posterity in which I suggested that the destruction we had seen might be just the beginning….I thought those four planes could be the vanguard of a whole series of terrorist actions that might include bio weapons and/or dirty nuclear bombs, individual roaming gunmen, assaults on iconic locations in the US by small special forces groups, poisoned water supplies, attempts to take down the power grid, and a host of other possibilities.
Growing up, I always assumed that we were the “good guys”. My dad served in the Korean War and like other kids of that generation….the one whose parents lived through WWII and Korea, I was proud of my country and heritage. Sure we all knew that the US had allowed slavery to flourish and we knew that Native Americans had an entire continent taken from them but people had a different take on those facts in the 60’s. We knew we could do better and there were moves in that direction but most people seemed to support the government.
When we began sending boys to Vietnam, we trusted the government to do the right thing. We had to push back on the Communists, right? As a child, I distinctly remember us taking my cousin, who had been drafted, to the airport in Louisville after his last leave prior to being shipped out to Vietnam. We all thought that no one would possibly require this sort of sacrifice if it were not absolutely necessary to stem the advance of the communists in Southeast Asia.
My uncle went too and both relatives saw significant combat but returned unscathed. 53,000 of their fellow soldiers came home in a box and another 300,000 were wounded. 150,000 of the wounded required a hospital stay.
As the casualties began to mount, many US citizens (mainly on the left) began to question the goals of the war. Student and other groups conducted many protests as the war progressed and the CIA infiltrated some of these organizations. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy stoked passions further and there were riots in hundreds of cities.
In 1968, the US began the slow process of drawing down US forces, in fact, my uncle who had finished three years of college and had gotten married right before deploying was given an opportunity to leave Vietnam early. Any combat vet that could prove enrollment in college for the fall semester in 1969 could get out. He flew out of Vietnam and arrived home in Bowling Green, KY on Labor Day. The very next day, he was in a college class with no transition period or decompression.
The Pentagon Papers were released in 1971, clearly indicating that the Johnson administration lied about the war and the chances for victory. Eisenhower’s warning about the Military Industrial Complex must have been echoing in many minds in those days.
Fast forward to 2001 and thousands of America’s youth joined the military to exact revenge on…..someone….the terrorists? It all seemed so clear in the days right after the towers fell. Twenty years later, there are tens of thousands dead or wounded American soldiers, and a US military that once again is retreating from a country we invaded.
The patriot in me is worn down to almost nothing. I still believe in my heart that the US offers a good chance for people to live life on their terms, to achieve perhaps the world’s greatest level of liberty, and to pursue happiness. But…..during my 66 years on this planet, a quick review of US military engagements shows only two years when the US military was not involved in a war, an action or an attack. We try to influence events around the globe with our clandestine operators, we prop up unpopular leaders and chose others outright. We throw money we don’t have at every “problem” that we think we own and we DO NOT LEARN FROM THE PAST.
My fervent hope in this season of remembering 9/11 is that we will all learn more about our country, become more involved, and help to guide our future rather than relying on leadership that (regardless of party) does not have our best interests in mind.
The Mark of the Cryptos
Recent articles focusing on Covid extremism, authoritarian governments, and cryptocurrencies should awaken many to the perils of centralized power. Every developed country is at least thinking about the advantages of digital currencies. Some are actively and openly working toward this goal. In the US, the Biden administration discusses the prospect of giving the IRS access to private financial data ostensibly to protect us from criminal activity but really to make sure that tax receipts rise to fund ever expanding social and military spending. This is particularly galling to those who save before they spend. Many of us can provide examples of purchasing cars, equipment, and other big ticket items from private individuals who want payment in cash. Good luck trying to withdraw anything more than a few thousand dollars of YOUR OWN MONEY from your bank, most don’t routinely have much cash available. And, if you take out more than $10,000, you’re told that the bank is required by CURRENT rules to notify the feds. The Biden administration wants to lower that limit to $600! So it’s getting to the point where you can’t buy a used washing machine without Uncle wanting to know about your literal dirty laundry.
Those who are even vaguely aware of crypto currencies can see where this path is leading. Once governments implement their own cryptos and outlaw all competition, nothing about your private financial transactions will be private. And, as others are warning, the government will leverage this absolute control to force all to bend the knee. If you have a government-issued cryptocard and you let’s say – criticize your local school board president, or you don’t want the vax – Merrick Garland could contact his buddies over at Treasury and pull the plug on your card. The next day, you stop for gas, or groceries and guess what – your card is declined. It won’t take long for you to get the jab or apologize to that school board president if your kids are hungry.
Some of those commenting on these stories say that barter will still allow them to continue with the life they’ve known. They think they will be able to avoid the cryptocard altogether.
I think this is unlikely.
If you buy in to the idea that “you will own nothing and you will be happy”….then maybe you can get away with a little barter on the side but if you have a car or a house on which you must pay property tax, you are already on the government dole in a way and the government owns you. They/it will demand that you pay your taxes with the cryptocard and once you cross this barrier, most will submit across the board.
Now I do not try to proselytize here but some writers and many commenters bring up the prophecies of Revelation in this discussion. As a brief primer for those unfamiliar, the last book of the Bible, Revelation contains many predictions about the ultimate fate of mankind. Most are very cryptic and difficult or impossible to interpret. One, is pretty straightforward about currency and it’s found in Revelation Chapter 13:
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Now, maybe you believe and maybe you don’t but the 2000 year old prophecy is looking pretty accurate about now.
If you reject the idea of Biblical prophecy, maybe Orwell, or Huxley, or Jack London’s “Iron Heel” will get your attention. I fear the time is drawing near where all those who want to maintain any level of individual freedom will be forced to take a stand against the continual usurpation of control by those who are supposed to serve us. Maybe it’s time to wake up to these insidious and incremental erosions of our freedoms.
National Debt….and I ain’t talkin’ money
August 3, 2021 9:12am
Once again, we arrive at that time in the ongoing story of our nation when leaders begin to wring their hands and take one of two stances: (1) the country is on the verge of shutting down and we must take immediate action or the whole facade of civilization will crumble or (2) public display of disbelief that the other guys (those who took stance #1) think we can just keep raising the debt ceiling with no repercussions while the #2’s privately believe that they also must raise the debt ceiling or risk losing their next election.
These two stances appear to fall along party lines but in fact lurk in the dark recesses of all politicians’ souls. It’s like an addiction. Once you cross the line (debt ceiling), it is very difficult to get back.
Nevertheless, most rational people understand that there WILL be repercussions at some point. Others believe that we could, for example, mint a trillion dollar coin and pay off the debt with the coin. Now you must bear in mind that this brilliant strategy….I would almost call it an inspired genius on par with that of Forrest Gump, was suggested by populist presidential candidate Bo Gritz in 1992, according to some sources, at a time when a trillion dollars was some real money. Senator Everett Dirksen is credited with the saying, “a billion here, a billion there….pretty soon, you’re talking some real money” but admitted that a reporter erroneously quoted the “pretty soon” part and Dirksen never corrected it.
Anyway, in 1982, Ronald Regan increased government spending – pushing it over that magical mark of ONE TRILLION dollars and we never looked back. Currently, the US mint would need to mint 28 of the trillion dollar coins and we’d still be way over the debt that concerned Dirksen in the ’60’s.
Here’s what the future may hold if we don’t address the debt.
You see, this debt is like being on a roller coaster….you think all is well until you crest that summit but then the die has been cast and there’s only one outcome….you’re going down.
Problem is…there are those who believe in Modern Monetary Theory. They think we can just continue to print money forever – with no ill effects. So, again, we have a situation that one would think is pretty cut and dried which is interpreted completely differently by each of us. All of our national problems…..debts, if you will, are seen through the same lens. Our views, the results of our perceptions of life….once monolithic (compared to today) and now fragmented….a vision through the kaleidoscope of a diverse population that increasingly appears to be losing the few stands of commonality….of community and shared experiences that might bind us into a nation instead of a farrago of interest groups, tribes, cliques, claques, clubs and parties with nothing holding the center.
See the essay Diverse, Divisive, and Panarin Essays & Misc. | Borderland Journal
The Big Game
Prospects for metastasizing conflicts brought on by economic sanctions in an era of unprecedented communications from those on the front lines may drive history in a direction heretofore unknown. Could it be that populations formerly at the mercy of the propagandists on both sides will wise up to the machinations of leaders who, in the end, work only for the profit and power of their owners? Few commentators have ventured to suggest that everything President Biden is doing in Ukraine is a result of his obligations to the oligarchs that paid his family for their influence peddling? Is Biden being blackmailed? Does he think that the war will help provide cover for treasonous actions?
There are many competing narratives drifting around the world like poisonous fumes. No one knows what to believe and so it becomes easy to assume that all that we hear is lies about lies. Whether it is Ukraine, Covid, January 6th, Russiagate, election fraud, the hydra that is the Clintons, the stock market casino, rising gas prices, the health care racket, the prospect of digital currency, or the inflation that is devouring the last little bit of wealth accumulated by the middle class….we don’t know who to believe.
So maybe it’s time for the people who do the work, pay the price, and suffer the wounds to declare independence from clueless leaders around the world. Maybe it’s time to limit the ability of governments everywhere to take the production of their citizens and transmute it into the shackles of their own enslavement. Estimates of global military spending now hover at right around two TRILLION dollars a year.
Imagine the renaissance that could occur if some alien race visited us and laid down the law: “Stop military spending immediately and use that money to improve the lives of your citizens. Any aggression from this point on will be met with annihilation of the aggressor.” Well, this is an unlikely scenario but it IS possible that resistance could flower in global populations newly aware of the chessboard on which they are only pawns awaiting sacrifice for the strategies of the players moving the kings and queens of this game we call reality.
Perhaps it’s time for a new reality in which the pawns take control of this board, ignore the kings and queens and tell the players, “we’re not participating in the game any longer.”
Advocacy for Increasingly Fringe Elements
April 4, 2022
Progressivism implies progress toward some utopian goal that is just over the horizon. History is the record of humankind’s halting journey toward that promised land of freedom, equality, and justice for all. There have been many successes and many setbacks on this 5,000-year trek.
Self-awareness and consciousness in prehistory eventually led to codification of morality, ethics, and laws. Our philosophers and theologians have delved into the fundamental questions facing our species and these questions have become increasingly nuanced while the sins we commit against each other do not change. Human nature does not change so we continue to suffer from the same old failures laid out in our oldest sacred texts. Whether we speak of murder, torture, or simple unkindness, we have not changed, and we will be plagued by our natures for as long as humans exist.
Tribal societies and early civilizations understood that a unified population had a better chance of survival than those less bonded by culture. Leaders arose who strengthened these cultural ties and punished all who broke them. For thousands of years, humans prized uniformity. When political or theological schisms split populations, whole groups were slaughtered, persecuted, and ostracized to preserve the purity of the ideology….think – the inquisition.
Fastforward to the 19th/20th century, the birth of Marxism, the era of big government, civil rights, and the promise that we can fix every inequality and injustice with legislation. No one would argue that there were societal failures and that reforms were necessary.
BUT….but, once we hopped on that reform train, did anyone ask just how we would define arrival at our destination? If your goal is complete equality, how will you measure it and are we talking equality of opportunity or equal outcomes? And which outcome do you measure? Do you demand that every worker has exactly the same take-home pay? Or is it enough to give everyone the same educational opportunities and then let nature take its course?
Clearly, it doesn’t require much thought to conclude that equality of outcomes would probably NEVER occur and even the attempt would mean an authoritanian/repressive government the likes of which the world has never seen.
So, instead, we have the present paradigm in which a utopian goal is just over the horizon and constant legislative changes promoted by advocacy groups and lobbyists promise to bring us ever closer to the latest societal reform. But, when these reforms are achieved, a curious thing happens….a new goal is erected and the advocacy groups and lobbyists start a new capital campaign and donations pour in to secure “rights” for increasingly fringe groups.
Take the present fixation on “trans-rights.” Once gay rights and same sex marriage were accepted by a majority of the US (or at least tolerated), the people whose income depended on a new “goal,” (the folks working at the non-profits) realized that a new cause was required and so a small subset of the gay community was identified as oppressed and in need of funding, legislation, and public relations to insure its protection. So, the donations roll in to maintain an administrative bureaucracy dependent on a new and tiny minority of victims that we must save from injustice.
You can extrapolate this scenario to every non-profit, advocacy, and lobby group tasked with correcting any of societies perceived inequalities. It’s just unfortunate that they miss many of the root causes of disparate outcomes suffered by minority groups of all kinds.
And the question still remains….do any of these social justice warriors tell us when we arrive at our goal? Do they ever say in their mission statements, “we will shut our doors and revel in our victory when we achieve our goal of ___________.” No because of the one truth always in play where humans are involved…..”follow the money.”
One Party Nation
Many objective observers of the US Supreme Court believe that the leaked draft opinion follows legal precedent that should have informed the original Roe vs Wade decision in 1973. Now, the court appears to be willing to step back from a nation-wide decree and allow our Federal system to work as it should….allowing each state to decide the issue for itself. Neutral observers of our system would probably agree that this is a compromise solution that should work for all.
The current (May 2022) political environment seems assured to swing the pendulum back to the conservative side with high gas prices, rampant inflation, an unpopular covid response, proven lies about the Russian election hoax, potential corruption in the highest levels of the administration, and an Afghanistan withdrawal debacle. So, what does Mitch McConnell do following the SCOTUS leak? He proceeds to inform the nation that if Roe is overturned, the new Republican majority emerging from the mid-terms might implement a national ban on abortion! Why would he say this? Regardless of anyone’s opinion of McConnell, most would agree that he is the consummate politician….one who never says anything without knowing the consequences. And here, I must say that as a life-long Kentuckian and McConnell watcher, I am forced to the conclusion that Mitch is poking the bear knowing full well the ramifications. It’s as if he got together with Democrat leaders to decide once again how powerful Washington elites of both parties can gaslight the citizenry, keep them at odds with each other, and maintain their strangle-hold on the country by dividing and conquering.
I call bullshit on our two-party system….here’s further proof there’s only one party and, in the words of George Carlin, we ain’t invited.