***THE OPINIONS IN THIS BLOG DO NOT REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, OR THE UNITED STATE MARINE CORPS.***
I live in Tacoma Washington.
Judson, 22 years of living on this gravity well, spiraling around this nuclear fireball that somehow keeps us warm. Words of description: single, 'out to lunch', Malformed Public duty gland, and a deficiency in moral fiber precluding me from saving Universes. Possibly a dreamer (jury is still out). A bit rude, a bit crude, a bit into myself.
Nothing of importance: Don't listen to me, because I am mostly out to lunch, and Mostly harmless.
My Photography Blog if you are interested:
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Unacceptable
“…overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.”
“When war become profitable, you are going to see more of it.”
every time I think of military spending/the cost of the war, I think of quotes like these.
Terrorism [ter-uh-riz-uh m]: noun - The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
The United States Army will be deploying troops to nearly three-dozen African nations in the coming year.
Troops will begin training in March 2013 in order to prepare for a project that will send troops to as many as 35 African nations, the Associated Press reports.
Meanwhile the US will be drastically raising taxes on the middle and lower class come 2013, because our government can’t for the life of them think of anywhere we might be able to curtail government expansion and spending.
War Is Terror
It is a commonplace that the history of civilisation is largely the history of weapons. In particular, the connection between the discovery of gunpowder and the overthrow of feudalism by the bourgeoisie has been pointed out over and over again. And though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found generally true: That ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships, and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows, and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon—so long as there is no answer to it—gives claws to the weak.
George Orwell (via anarchei)
(Source: tmh.floonet.net)
Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children…In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.
Robert Higgs (via disobey)
2013 NDAA Adds Insult to Injury: Legalizes Open Use of Propaganda on US Citizens
The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on the American public.
The amendment — proposed by Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and passed in the House last Friday afternoon — would nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at influencing U.S. public opinion.
well then.
“Over-grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”
-George Washington 1st US President.
Idiots seem to forget this, they seem to believe cutting spending on the military is threatening to service members….
No, you are a fucking Moron if you think $700 billion dollars a year is some how acceptable to spend on tools of destruction.
“When war becomes profitable you are going to see more of it.”
In Case You Still Haven't Figured It Out: What's In Iran's Head
Imagine, for a moment, a world in which the United States is a regional power, not a superpower. A world in which the globe’s mightiest nation, China, invades Mexico and Canada, deposing the leaders of both countries. A world in which China has also ringed the Americas, from Canada to Central America, with military bases. A world in which Chinese officials openly brag about conducting covert operations against and within the United States. A world in which the Chinese launch a sophisticated and crippling cyber attack on America’s nuclear facilities. A world in which the Chinese send spy drones soaring over the United States and position aircraft carrier battle groups off its shores. What would Americans think? How would Washington react? Perhaps something like Iran’s leadership today. After all, Iran has seen the United States invade its neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan, announce covert operations against it,surround it with military bases,fly drones over it, carry out naval operations off its coast, conduct a gigantic build-up of military forces all around it, and launch a cyberwar against it.
Imagine again, in this alternate universe, that China forged military alliances throughout the Americas, pulling Mexico and Canada, as well as Caribbean and Central American nations into its orbit. Imagine that it started selling advanced military technology to those countries. How might the U.S. government and its citizens respond?
It’s a question worth pondering given Washington’s recent actions. Last month, for instance, the U.S. quietly announced plans to further flood the Middle East with advanced weaponry. According to November notices sent by the Pentagon to Congress, the Department of Defense intends to oversee a $300 million deal with Saudi Arabia for spare parts for Abrams Tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and Humvees, and another for $6.7 billion in new advanced aircraft. Add to this a proposed sale of $9.9 billion in Patriot missiles to Qatar, a $96 million deal with Oman for hundreds of Javelin guided missiles, and more than $1.1 billion in Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles for the United Arab Emirates. And this was on top of deals struck earlier in the year that include a $63 million sale of Huey II helicopters to Lebanon, $4.2 billion in Patriot missiles for Kuwait, a $3 billion agreement to arm Qatar with advanced Apache attack helicopters, more than $1 billion in upgrades for Abrams tanks belonging to Morocco’s military, and the sale of $428 million worth of radar equipment and tactical vehicles to Iraq.
yea this is completely and totally sustainable…. because like nuclear weapons and stuff right? Something? Things like this just frustrate me to no end.
No country on earth should tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians.
President Barack Obama, November 18, 2012
Every time you read it, the irony gets a little sharper.
(via disobey)
“In any war between the oppressor and the oppressed, support the oppressed.”
(Source: socialismartnature)
UN to Investigate Civilian Death Toll from US Drone Strikes
Special rapporteur on counter-terror operations condemns Barack Obama’s drone campaigns in the Middle East. The United Nations is to set up a dedicated investigations unit in Geneva early next year to examine the legality of drone attacks in cases where civilians are killed in so-called “targeted” counter-terrorism operations.
The announcement was seen as an explicit challenge to the prevailing US ideology of the global war on terror.
Earlier this summer, Emmerson, who monitors counter-terrorism for the UN, called for effective investigations into drone attacks. US drone strikes in Pakistan amount to war crimes, Emmerson warned.
Pakistani politician Imran Kahn, a vocal critic of U.S. drone strikes, was briefly delayed and questioned by U.S. immigration officials in Toronto before being allowed to board a flight to New York, prompting his party to demand an apology from Washington.
Khan told his followers on Twitter that he was detained and interrogated Friday about his views on drones.
READ ON: U.S. officials pull Pakistani politician off plane
