Well, bogi…, comparatively speaking, we “in the west” ARE spoiled. Certainly there are a few whose lives are a living hell for one reason or another. However, the vast majority of us have access to sufficient shelter, food and safety to keep us alive. That would be considered luxury in many parts of the world.

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And your recommendations are ....?

ofer:
Good point

It is A or he would be honest about B

What irony! President Obama campaigns and is elected on the strength of simple notions that most every, “average” American can understand.

Only then do we discover that to be an effective President, the holder of the office must be anything BUT an “average” American. He or she must be a Grand Master Chess player whose vision and strategies must far exceed the comprehension and understanding of most “average” Americans.

RAE:
“I don’t know if he and his administration are perpetrating the greatest con and hoax that America has ever endured or if he’s just run into far stronger headwinds than he ever anticipated on the pathway to change.”

My conservative friends tend towards choice A. I tend toward B. Which is what most truthdiggers don’t understand. They think Obama’s a traitor to his promises. I think he is just way, way out of his depth, and is being swept along by the inevitability of events and institutions he can’t control.

thank you rfidler, best advice i have recieved from you!!

To fidler:

I’ll pass on the ceegar. Of the many single malts I’ve tasted I’ve never found a “bad” one. Neither have I found one I could afford on a regular basis!

As far as President Obama is concerned: I’m still in the “we’ll see” camp. Reading stuff here and there only deepens my resolve to wait for the smoking gun if there is one. I don’t know if he and his administration are perpetrating the greatest con and hoax that America has ever endured or if he’s just run into far stronger headwinds than he ever anticipated on the pathway to change.

One thing’s for sure. America is politically, philosophically, religiously divided so deeply that it’s a miracle when ANYTHING gets accomplished. The cost of doing the public’s business in the USA would put the USA out of business if it couldn’t print its own banknotes. God help us all if the world’s puppeteers in this global poker game “call” the US dollar. Talk about an emperor having no clothes!

RAE, gerard:
For the last several months, you two have been very overheated in your commentary. But in the last few days, you’ve become very circumspective and philosophical. You know that I’m the local asshole conservative poster, but I want to thank you for lowering the temperature on this site. Also, RAE, may I recommend a good single malt scotch and Cuban cigar.

Amen, gerard.

I suppose that hope is more helpful than despair to those who “still care very much what happens and want to influence change to the extent we can.” But not by much, in my opinion. Hope is not a plan for change any more than wishing/praying will bring about desired results with any degree of reliability. Both states are holding patterns for the countless millions who couldn’t think/plan their way out of wet paper bag if their lives depended on it.

Except for my sporadic incursions on TD forums I pretty much have disengaged from the fray that is today’s urban society. I neither hope nor despair - I’ve become mostly indifferent for two main reasons. First, because after years of railing against the monumental injustices in our society, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. Secondly, because even if I could think of an activity in which I would engage that would make any difference whatever, I’d rather spend what’s left of my life according to an agenda that I set myself, which often means nothing more than sitting on the back stoop, with a nice glass of wine, listening to the frogs in the pond and the wind in the trees.

Amen, gerard.

Frankly, there isn’t going to be any quick fix—by “the government”, by “the people”, by “God” or any abstract agency.  What happens will be up to everybody in the world doing whatever little thing or big thing each person can, over an indefinite period of time, staying alive, helping others, learning, thinking, saying what they believe again and again, till millions understand and demand an end to wars and a turn toward economic and civil justice. 
  All points of view are limited, and nobody can see enough to know when and how millions of people will finally come together, but believing it can and will happen is the first step in creating it, just as disbelieving is the first step in stamping it out.
  It is easy to hope when things look hopeful.  When things look hopeless, that’s when courage is vital.
  I am fully aware that, to people who are deeply discouraged, saying things like this sounds silly.
But the excess of despair, reiterated over and over tends to sink us all in either rage or self-pity.
  I am guessing that commenters like myself who have the time, and who perhaps are on the down side of 60 in age, are all suffering from feelings of being less useful, less effective, less able than they were. Yet we still care very much what happens and want to influence change to the extent we can. We expected Obama to do what we hoped for—and quickly. Our frustration with him is largely a frustration with ourselves, and that’s where so much “editorial we” is coming from.  Perhaps it is time to forgive ourselves in order that we can find hope for Obama’s generation and beyond.

RAE:
I’d much rather the government be the puppet and you and I the puppeteers than the other way around, which is what the Obama agenda is directed toward.

Well, gerard, your suggestion: “It is doubly urgent that the government initiate reforms…” would seem a viable step in the right direction except for one minor concern:

In my view, the government(s) have become puppets in the hands of the very corporate puppeteers you suggest they set out to control. Never yet have I seen the puppet manipulate the puppeteer.

Where’s my evidence that puppeteers even exist? I have nothing but conjecture, nothing anyone could use to “initiate” an action. It’s just my deduction after eliminating all the other possibilities that I can think of. Why else would my hired and well paid representatives go stone deaf immediately upon taking office then proceed to consistently vote in ways that rarely benefit me, their employer?

It doesn’t matter if you change the puppets when the invisible puppeteer(s) remain the same.

Rae, you make an interesting statement:  “I guess until I, “in the west,” am invaded from afar, herded against my wishes and sensibilities, and virtually imprisoned/enslaved/indentured in my own country, will I understand what would prevent me from somehow, at some point, taking back my country.”

The extremely angry comments and criticism appearing on TD indicate that some people (probably many) feel they have been invaded (by our own government’s lack of democracy, herded into wars against their wishes and virtually imprisoned” by lack of information or false information.)  They indicate again and again that something should be done.  The “teapartiers” even use the expression “take back my country” as a motto for their protests, rants etc.

The fact is that none of the critics, right or left, has any concrete idea of what to do.  Some advocate “revolution” though I doubt they seriously mean bloodshed.  Others advocate non-violent resistence of some unspecified kind (as does Mr. Hedges).  Some suggest voting one way or another, or not voting at all.  Some suggest community organizing to self-educate and working together on key political issues.  Some suggest bowing out, moving to Canada, to Europe, to some vague peaceful place closer to nature, growing their own food, producing their own energy, etc.(back to nature.)

There is, as yet, no clear indication of what the vast majority of people will do, if anything.  The empty vagueness is frustrating for those who are impatient for change yet don’t themselves know what to do.  Most of the country seems to be waiting for the other shoe to fall—whatever that means. If you are bewildered, you are not alone.

The tensions of this “suspended animation” can be dangerous if some charismatic leader comes along who exploits it and plays on the ignorance and fears of large numbers of people.  I hope and pray that enough people are aware of the dangers to prevent such an outcome

It is doubly urgent that the government initiate reforms a.s.a.p. to treat the main problems of corporate greed, lack of jobs, stopping wars, discouraging fear, providing open and accurate public information, and changing to green energy sources.

Conn Hallinan   The Afghan Fraud   10/Apr/10

I’m embarrassed, bogi666… my absolute ignorance of the history should be signal enough for me to keep my mouth shut. Alas, even abject ignorance of the origins of the dissatisfactions doesn’t restrain me from expressing my head-shaking puzzlement about the situation. My confusion has little to do with Afghanistan in particular. It has to do with the centuries-old hostilities that rage in many parts of the world. I think that after a few centuries the warring parties would get tired of it all and establish peace.

Afghanistan, I understand, has been invaded and “in conflict” since Alexander the Great’s forays in the region? What’s the attraction?

I guess until I, “in the west,” am invaded from afar, herded against my wishes and sensibilities, and virtually imprisoned/enslaved/indentured in my own country, will I understand what would prevent me from somehow, at some point, taking back my country.

Thank you, gerard, for your cogent explanation.

Our “peace,” illusion or not, with its foundation firmly imbedded in denial, still trumps the alternatives in my books.

I am aware that my “peace” has been won by retreating or disengaging from the daily affairs and interests of the madding crowds. I will help, when asked, to a limited extent, but I will not endanger or encumber my own existence to do so. I am no martyr, saint or angel.

My MSW wasn’t earned by “not noticing the sorrows and needs of others.” However, I am firm in my belief that unless I put my needs first I will soon be of no use to either myself or others. Selfish? You bet. I question the mental health of anyone who isn’t. Right there I’m at loggerheads with our society and it goes downhill from that point.

My acquiescence to law is limited to doing only what I must to stay out of the clutches of those employed in what we mislabel our “justice” system. Hell hath no fury like petty bureaucrats and officials spurned - don’t piss off the functionaries because so many of them will make it their lifetime vocation to make your life a misery… and use your money and time to do it.

Just amazing isn’t it that with all the resources a society can muster in support of the nuclear, heterosexual-only family system of social control, it still is fading fast into the annals of history.

And the myth of all myths - equality of opportunity. It simply doesn’t exist - never has and never likely will. There are a few folks who, legitimately or otherwise, get the long straws. The vast majority simply get dumped into the haystack to fight over the chaff. (Sorry, I’ve mixed not only metaphors but crops as well!). I have no idea how you consider this one of the “reasons why we can settle stuff.”

As you said… big subjects.

Eric Marjolis…..rfidler

an interview done last week.  You should listen to it.
It is very educational, he personally knows all the
players.
I am glad you finally realize that FOX is mere
propaganda, good for you !!!!

The source of this report is Al-Jazeera, therefore it is 100% accurate. If they say the dead were militants, then you can believe it.

I bet if the Pakis had used Predator drones instead of their ancient Soviet jets, the death toll would have been much, much lower.

Ofer:  Why didn’t you just tell us the journalist’s name?

gerard: Nice edge to the sarcasm. But there’s no need to explain yourself. If people don’t get it, too bad.

RAE,

Everybody is ignorant of whats going on

Please listen to Antiwarradio’s interview with the
foremost reporter and journalist about Afganistan.
An American jounalist who has been in Afhan since before
the Russians.
He explains the names, people and makes it very
understandable.
It is unbelievable.

I suppose mainly because we had the good fortune to be born (accidentally, as all birth is an accident) into a sociaty that had given up tribalism for larger social groupings.  Not that we don’t still have huge remainders of tribalism hanging around in our city streets, and in our own heads—racial discrimination, class discrimination, professional discriminations, tendency toward formation of teams, gangs, troops etc.

The veneer of our “development” is extremely sleazy and thin and needs constant reassurance and repair or it breaks down into “tea-parties” and secret societies and religious cadres ready to march off to kill some “others” at the drop of an AK47.  What but tribalism caused the horrid military shoot-out in Baghdad currently?

We are not “living in peace” contrary to superficial appearances.  There is no peace possible in the hearts of thousands of people who have no job, no future, no education, no joy, no hope. “Peace” is a precarious state of mind found among the upper classes—a superficial state of mind depending upon not noticing the sorrows and needs of others, and time to sit around and write comments to Truthdig. That includes me.  And the only excuse I have is my age—plus the blind hope that I did enough while I was a “viable” citizen to keep me out of total despair and keep me believing in others.

Strangely enough, “we in the west” with all our warring and exploitation are pushing them (the others) into a world they are strangers to, have no experience in, and are more or less lost in.  That’s why they remain exploitable -=- and angry.  Some good may come of it, but the price they are paying is exhorbitant. We could help them much more peaceably—and cost them less agony—if we chose.

There are several “reasons why we can settle stuff”:
1.  Acquiescence to the rule of law, sort of. The reason I say “sort of” is that some law is very destructive to some people (unfair imprisonment etc.)
2.  Weakening of the famlly system and broadening of social relationshiops.  De-emphasis on religious and cultural differences (which occasionally breaks down, nevertheless, and never completely fades.
3.  Equality of opportunity, which is breaking down more and more as time passes, especially in times and places where people have no jobs and hence no feeling of cintribution. 

Enough for now.  Thanks for responding.  Big subject.

I enjoyed your attempt at sarcasm, gerard.

Help me out, here. Explain what you mean when you offer “that it don’t make no difference whose goose is gored if you haven’t thought about things from more than one point of view.”

I’m sure the “mountain men of Pakistan” have no more understanding of the American point of view, than Americans do of theirs. How could they? The only way to have a valid opinion is to have access to accurate information - something that seems to escape almost everyone on all sides.

Perhaps you could help us all see the Pakistani point of view if you have some special knowledge or insight regarding the reasons for the relentless, ongoing-for-centuries hostilities in that region.

Until then, I’ll just have to limp along with my one point of view that, precariously, is formed from the press reports, innuendo, lies, propaganda, and other sources that are available to me. As I said, I have no understanding of WHY there seems to be never-ending hostilities in that region of the world, compared to where I live where I’ve NEVER experienced a shot fired in over 70 years. So… WHY, gerard? I just wonder why we can get along or at least settle disagreements without the use of guns and bombs and others can’t. Explain.

Hoo, hoo!  Pardon me while I smoke another joint.
Of course I don’t know anything about the situation, but no one here in the mountains of Pakistan gives a rat’s ass if 100 or so of those Americans are killed.  I don’t know why they haven’t learned to live in peace like us in the eastern world.  Those modern cultures THRIVE on ongoing hostilities and make countless amounts of money off of doing it.
It’s their way of life.

(PS for those who don’t “get it”—this is sarcasm—a paraphrase meant to show that it don’t make no difference whose goose is gored if you haven’t thought about things from more than one point of view.)

Pardon my bluntness, fully supported by profound ignorance of the situation, but no one I know here in western society gives a rat’s ass about the deaths of those 100 “militants” (which could just easily in reality been 10 year-old children for all we know. All we get are lies overlaid with misinformation.)

For some reason way beyond my understanding and caring, these ancient cultures THRIVE on ongoing hostilities between and amongst the various factions. Why they haven’t learned to live in peace with one another by now is completely beyond me.

It’s my opinion, that nothing we in the west do will change any of this in any significant way for very long. It is their way of life. All we are accomplishing is wasting countless amounts of money and human resources. Glad it isn’t coming out of my pocket.