I agree with prole, about Senator Shumer.
What politician didn’t come out against the Citizen’s
United decision?  They all were publicly offended.
Read Shumer’s new bill,  it doesn’t do anything to
address campaign finance,  if he were serious about
campaign finance he would write a bill calling for
public financeing of elections. It would require that
all federal political donations have to come from within
the district in which the candidate is running.
The Democrats had plenty of time and votes to address
the gross campaign finance of our federal elections,
instead, they choose to screw around for a year, on a
health care bill that doesn’t cover one person, and the
instant sixteen million is also proving to be a hoax.
It was a waste of time in which no progressive legislation
went through Capitol Hill, sqandering their majority.
Shumer controls all the Senatorial campaign money and
determines who gets how much, pretty powerful, his voting
record does not follow his rhetoric, just like the pres.
How can anyone deny that the Isreali government isn’t
holding the U>S> hostage?

Obviously some people care.  Look at all the comments under this article.  Still, Mr. Hedges makes a good point.  There should be more protests.  However, as one person said in a comment, there’s no military draft here, so we’re not personally involved in war like the people were during the Vietnam era.  Also, the contractors, the paid mercenaries, are an issue.  Even if there was a backlash against imperial wars, there would apparently still be hundreds of thousands of men willing to be paid to fight.  I guess they make good money, and well paying jobs are scarce in this economy. 

It all comes down to the corporate structure of our society, which views human beings and all of human life as subservient to private profit.  This is the socialist view, of course, and Chris Hedges is an avowed socialist.  It’s not a wonder why very few people can get behind what he’s saying.  Not very many Americans, after all, call themselves socialists. 

I listened to Chris’s teach-in speech online.  He spoke eloquently about the reality of war.  After twenty years as a war correspondent, it’s not surprising that he would sound bitter and be depressed at the state we’re in, with all the money and resources, not to mention lives, that are wasted on our wars.  Still, his is a voice in the wilderness of his own creation.  He doesn’t really want to reach the masses, I don’t think.  He’s content to be an isolated moral voice.  That’s what he wrote in a previous essay, “Calling All Rebels.”

At the same time that he laments our lack of sanity, like a sad prophet pitying humanity, his desire is for all of us to be consumed.  That’s our just revenge for leading meaningless, immoral lives—that is, lives that don’t match up with all his ideals.  I don’t think it’s right to say no one cares.  He’s speaking for himself.  He thinks no one cares because, it’s true, no one does care about looking at life from his perspective.  No one wants to lead a depressing life.  The fact is, his view of life is despairing.  I think that’s due to his lack of faith in God. 

If you wish to have an impact and get people to care, you have to talk about what people care about.  It’s wrong to think that society has conditioned us to care only for ourselves, and even if there were some truth to that, we could break out of it.  We could change—not through elections or democracy but in our individual lives.

I respect Chris Hedges a lot, but it seems he’s mostly interested in preaching pessimism and despair, thinking this will somehow get people to change their ways.  He and his friends on the left can talk all they want about how horrible the wars are, how evil the corporate state is, how depraved the politicians are, how awful Israel is toward the Palestinians, and the list goes on. I agree with the criticisms, but there are no solutions presented. 

There is no mass movement because there is no movement that appeals to the masses.  Think about that before you say no one cares.

I find Carpenter-Jones’ May 3 post a bracing bit of rhetoric, which should be embraced by those believing in Israel’s special relation to the End Times. After all, Carpenter-Jones is speaking to you in a style which should be familiar to you from your reading of the Prophets. A modern Jeremiad. Well written!

Anyone rushing to criticize the piece on the grounds of harshness should subject themselves to a half hour of proselytizing at the hands of a believer in this sort of ‘rapture’. Ideally we could aspire to the sainthood of treating everyone with good humor and compassion. Second best is Carpenter-Jones’ approach!

Robert and Prole etc whohave written that “Israel is the key” have presented little evidence to link pro Israel attitudes in Congress with the undue inlfuence that corporations exercise over elected officials.

In fact Schumer,who is mentioned by these writers as a pro-Israel representative, has come out very strongly against the Supreme Court decision to allow corporations to exercise more power in advertizing for political figures.

And many politicians must be regarded as being in the pockets of corporate interests who have no relation to Middle East politics whatsoever.

Is it some kind of radar that makes me suspicious of singling out the Jewish State as ‘key’ to an unrelated issue? I personally feel the US has too uncritically supported the right wing ultraorthodox in Israel - but then again, so do many Israelis, so I hardly regard such a position as “anti-Israel’. Nevertheless, I am curious if there is any meaning to an unsupported association of supporters of Israel with supporters of corporate interests.

antispin—I think that’s ‘wires’, not ‘wives’.  However, it’s always good to hear from EC.  Thanks for reminding me.

I can’t agree with Commune 115 who says above, “Kucinich is a joke as well, let’s be honest.”
Voting for the HCR bill was sensible since by that time there was no alternative. But he has never wavered in his opposition to both wars.

Obama’s reliance on mercenaries puts him in pretty sorry company, historically, but is always a last resort by empires waging unpopular wars. King George had his Hessians and we have Blackwater. But I do think that he faced stronger opposition in parliament back then than our current and recent presidents have faced from the supine US Congress.

There’s a smart young woman on a light blue screen
That comes into my room every night
And she takes all the red, yellow, orange and green
And she turns them into black and white.

And you tease
And you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can please yourself, but somebody’s going to get it
Better cut off all identifying labels
Before they get you on the torture table

Cause somewhere in the quisling clinic
There’s a short time typist taking seconds over minutes
She’s listening into the Venus line
She’s picking out names, I hope none of them are mine

And you tease
And you flirt
And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt
You can tease yourself, but somebody’s going to get it

Never said I was a stool pigeon
Never said I was a diplomat
Everybody is under suspicion but
You don’t want to hear about that

Better send the naked ledger to the big investigation
Who put these finger prints on my imagination

There are wives in the windows
There are wives in the walls
There are wives in the kitchens
And wives in the halls
There are wives on poles
There are wives in your face
There are wives in holes
Coming out all over the place

By Ed Harges, May 3 at 11:01 pm #

Re: By prole, May 3 at 3:04 pm:

Prole has it right, of course. The key is Israel. The American left is fatally disabled by
the pro-Israel “liberal” gatekeepers such as Senators Schumer and Boxer, who
viciously and reflexively thwart the will of the overwhelming majority of actual
Democratic voters when it comes to any issue touching the Holy State of Israel.
============

Schumer: I’m on a Mission From God
(to Be Israel’s Guardian in Senate)

By MJ Rosenberg

May 02, 2010 “Huffington Post”— You know the old definition of chutzpah?

“The new line coming down from the neoconservatives is that the United States should do the job itself.

Certain members of Congress are no less heavy-handed.

Sen. Chuck Schumer told a New York radio station last week that after the Obama administration hit Israel hard on its settlement policy, “I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don’t retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this.’”

He added that there were two groups within the White House. One would give Israel the usual pass and the other wants the US to put pressure on Israel (and Palestinians).

“We’re pushing hard to make sure the right side wins and if not we’ll have to take it to the next step,” he said.

He concluded that God, himself, deputized him to be Israel’s man in the Senate:

  “You know, my name .... comes from the word shomer, guardian, watcher. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov. And I believe Hashem [Orthodox for God] actually gave me that name. One of my roles, very important in the United States senate, is to be a shomer—to be a or the shomer Yisrael. And I will continue to be that with every bone in my body ...”

~~~~~~~

Click on link for the rest:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25363.htm

Ed Harges, May 3 at 11:01 pm,

The United States has many more problems than Israel that need to be worked out.

Re: By prole, May 3 at 3:04 pm:

Prole has it right, of course. The key is Israel. The American left is fatally disabled by
the pro-Israel “liberal” gatekeepers such as Senators Schumer and Boxer, who
viciously and reflexively thwart the will of the overwhelming majority of actual
Democratic voters when it comes to any issue touching the Holy State of Israel.

These pro-Israel partisans, motivated by an unreasoning ethnocentric emotional
devotion to the Holy State, and backed by wealthy Jewish donors who wield power in
the Democratic Party all out of proportion to their numbers - either in the party or
in the general population - are able to bully everyone else with invariable success
mainly because they have trained Americans, especially liberal Americans, to accept
the notion that even to call attention to their power is inherently ant-Semitic.

If you are in politics, in a social environment in which no one is allowed to point
out how much power you have, your power quickly becomes effectively infinite.

It’s the ultimate political force multiplier.

Placing labels on people always seems a bit bigoted to me if not pompous. In my own case, I have trouble labeling my political productivities as my sexual fetishes which in some peoples eyes possibly would seem perverted.

So politically I prefer peace to war, does this make me a lefty liberal elite or lefty liberal surf? You know this sort of reminds me of when I used to sell rutabagas at the farmers market. Now I consider myself a small farmer, but to some people I seemed to be a big farmer, how does this work?

Well, one old farmer once answered it this way for me; “A Big farmer is any farmer bigger then you and a small farmer is any farmer smaller than you!”

Possibly this is what labeling is all about, it only means something to the person making or accusingly promoting the labels, which makes them potentially a bigot. 

It can be said, both my political leanings as my perversions really mean absolutely nothing about anyting, except that some people just love and need to use labels, seemingly for simpletons sake, in all, maybe the use of labeling is the only real perversion!

I find it frustrating that Chris was in town and I didn’t know about it.

He laments that no one showed up but with all due respect I suggest adding an event calendar to this site so the people who want to do something can get out and communicate with people of like mind. Without basic vehicles for communication it will be impossible to advance these important issues.

Anyone know if Chris will be in DC again in the near future?

I can’t really argue with most of Hedge’s argument but I do find it a little patronizing that he lets the working class off the hook and blames everything on the “liberal elite.” Most of the working class people here where I live in North Carolina (the white ones anyway) don’t seem very concerned with the war unless they have a family member serving. They put anti-Obama bumper stickers on their trucks and remove the McCain part of their McCain-Palin stickers and just leave the Palin part. As long as they can keep buying all the crap they want at Wal-Mart they don’t seem to really care what goes on anywhere else. Of course, this goes for the Republican middle class and upper class as well. On the other hand, me, my wife, and our friends are all liberal Democrats (although certainly not elites) who staunchly oppose the wars and are sickened by the destruction. Of course we voted for Obama and Clinton. Who were we going to vote for? Bush? McCain? Please don’t say Nader. I am also a great defender of the working class and it disgusts me that we don’t build anything here anymore that will pay people a decent wage. Of course a lot of the members of that same working class have bought the Republican argument that unions are their enemies. I only wish some of them were reading Chris Hedges and not just liberal elites like me.

Good article by C. Hedges—except for his “thing” about Kucinich which I hope
to understand one day, when I “grow up.”
On the whole, liberals have given a bad name to social progress and change.
They don’t believe in either. They voted for the “president for change” because,
deep inside, they knew it was a safe vote.  They live in political contradiction
and denial.  Some may do their “green” thing for the environment and support high culture.  Some keep overly-consuming, giving to charities, and hoping for the
best. Some pray, chant and meditate because they claim the answer lies in
personal spiritual development. Many admire Gandhi and M. Luther King but
they have a hard time acknowledging that these spiritual figures decided that
enlightenment is not achieved by simply taking refuge in sacred books,
philosophical thinking, and spiritual rituals.  They stepped out of the spiritual
bubble and became involved with the reality of the human condition.

Liberals are not disturbed by endless wars, the overwhelming power of the
corporate-government complex, workers’ rights, housing, health and
education problems, or the state of the media or the environment—never
mind something more exotic like the death penalty issue.  They are not
interested in political discussion either.  But they are generally quite militant
about voting, and so they’ll watch the TV election entertainment and will always
show up to vote for the one-size-fits-all party.

The members of the less educated, working class have given up on social justice.  They are also divided, fighting over jobs and taking out their resentment on each other.

This is a post script to the comment below, on July 2000, I was in New York, that year the “Tall Boats” were a feature of the celebrations. The streets were packed. I had worked in Midtown for years, New Yorkers I knew were smart, attractive well dressed, but on that day I saw on masses of ugly overweight people many yelling at their kids, swarms of them. We were with some friends from out of town, and I spent half the day explaining that ugliest, most overweight, vulgar people in the planet did not live in New York. That this was not the New York I knew. This in a ways is a metaphor for why we don’t care, we don’t like those people, they have bad hygiene, they have backward beliefs they repulse us.

Fact is people are overwhelmed, overwhelmed by information, often conflicting information, overwhelmed by fear of losing what they have. Most of all people are powerless, billions upon billions.  Like Stalin, most corporations believe one death is a tragedy one million deaths a statistic. But then again that is how the rulers of most countries view it too. These folks overseas live under governments that haven’t cared squat for the average person for thousands of years. An untouchable in India is treated worse than dirt, same story in Africa. China never accounted for the 40-50 million people murderd under Mao.
Thats the world, most people are cannon fodder, America never created it, but realpoliticks had made them realize it cant be changed. In the next 25 years there will be 8 billion or more people, whats 100000 deaths in a number that large. Humans are becoming devalued because there are so many more of them. As Kevin Bales pointed out in his book “Disposable People” a slave in the 19th Century south was worth about what a Lexus would cost. Today a slave is worth less than a dollar.

It is not that people don’t care. There are millions in this country who want peace and a complete change in direction, where the militarism of empire is dismantled. But they are not the ones with the money. Within a lawless monetary culture, governments will find all kinds of excuses for violence. Pretty soon the people running those governments reveal how much they do not care. A good example of this was President Obama’s joking remarks at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner:

“The Jonas Brothers are here. They’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But, boys don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you: predator drones. You will never even see it coming. You think I’m joking.”
President Obama, May 1, 2010

To be casually humorous about something as hideous as a predator drone, by a President who has launched more attacks in one year, than George W. Bush did in his entire two terms… what can one say? For the politicians of whatever ilk, even human survival must take a back seat to their own wretched agenda.

A lot of people on here put all of the blame for this mess at the republicans’ door. Please remember that the democrats have been right there with them and helped them do it. They are both opposite sides of the same coin. There is NO difference between their goals, only in their methods.

People are tuning out because they know they are being ignored. The majority of the people want an end to the “war on terror”. The MIC does not, so screw the people. We are ignored by our “representatives” if we have no money to give them.The people will keep being ignored, until we FORCE the government to listen. THAT is the ugly reality that nobody wants to face. Massive civil unrest is coming, probably within the next 3 years. The people have tried for decades to be heard, but Washington doesn’t want to listen. Voter turn-out is so low because most people think that their vote doesn’t matter. It’s hard to get a populace politically engaged when just asking questions can get you labelled a traitor.

BALKAS: If you are not using a cell phone, you should not be getting charged by the letter. Spelling out your thoughts like a teenage girl is a good way to get ignored. If you are taking the time to post, please do it as an adult, and stop texting.

By saying that no one cares ab US wars that it is waging now, one is presenting not only an inaccuracy-inadequacy, but also quite a fictive reality.

For if people [?99%] do not care, some people taught them not to care. And who these people may be? Clergy, i say. For they say gods oks wars; it’s god’s will, they say.
Pols, msm collumnists also teach people not to care.

For don’t they declare: God bless america; we are the greatest and best democracy on the planet; we are a nation of laws; thus, tacitly averring that US is governed by most honest-intelligent people on earth.
So what’s a houseperson to think after hearing this over and over again than that everything is OK; we are in good hands; so, why worry?

And both kucinich and hedges were and still are their teachers.
That’s all hedges does is to hedge. At one time he even asserted that constitution need not change in order to enact significant change.

True, US constitution appears much meaningless-meaningful; however, just like quran, torah, mein kapmf, bible, das kapital, etc., solely interpretative and the only valid interpretation of those writs is always the clergy or in case of US constitution, judiciary; i.e., the system that stands in the way of any significant change.

It is a self-sealed dogma. US or its prez can never be wrong in dealings with aliens. US can make mistakes, but saddam, miloshevich, allende, gorbachev, castro cannot ever be mistaken; solely criminal. tnx

“Most of the audience of about 70 were peace
activists who, as is usual at such events, were
joined by a motley collection of conspiracy theorists
who believe 9/11 was an inside job or that former
Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash, was
assassinated….”

LOL. It comes with the territory at events like this.

The Wellstone-was-assassinated crowd was at it on the
Internet the second they heard his plane had crashed,
and they’ve been at for nearly eight years despite a
shred of evidence for their assassination theory.
They’ll never give up, of course, no matter how much
the real world refuses to cooperate with their
fantasy world.

Of course, like JFK before him, Wellstone wasn’t just
a conventional liberal Democrat politician, but a
knight in shining armor who was going to save the
world, had he lived. How ignorant of history they
are. A liberal Democrat in office will never do the
right thing unless their are popular movements to
force him to do the right thing. We can see this with
Obama now.

For this reason, I can’t understate how much I want
Obama to live out his term(s). If this guy dies in
office, especially by assassination, we’re going to
see the rise of a conspiracy industry that will dwarf
the JFK conspiracy industry. He’ll suddenly become a
sainted hero whose plans to end the occupations of
Afghanistan and Iraq were thwarted by a right wing military coupe.

Same old, same old Chris. A ‘motley’ collection of conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 was an inside job? Why are they motley and why is it a theory when nearly three quarters of Americans in one poll said they thought it was an inside job and time has only made it more and more obvious that it was a manufactured terror attack to be used as a pretext for the manufactured war on terror? And if you don’t believe the neo cons were capable of flying planes into buildings how do you explain the anthrax attacks? If they did that(and we know they did) namely sending anthrax to US senators through the mail and attempting to frame two men for their own crime - one of whom is supposed to have committed suicide- then are they not people who are capable of anything?

If the peace movement is dead it’s because the War on Terror killed it. The Vietnam War was also a manufactured war but there was no spectacular media event like the 9/11 attacks to sustain that war and no concerted, though false, media narrative, completely dependent on the cinematic chill factor of the 9/11 attacks for its validity and meaning, beamed out 24/7 on all mainstream media outlets. What we have now is exactly what George Orwell predicted in ‘1984’: endless manufactured war complete with its own Goldstein in the person of Osama bin Laden. The villain is created (the religious and cultural other) and it doesn’t matter if this symbol really did what is claimed (informed people know bin Laden worked for the CIA for years in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the 9/11 attacks are not even listed on his FBI rap sheet) because the authorities have control of the mainstream media and the usual ‘rogue elements’ in the CIA can manufacture fake videos purporting to show that bin Laden lives on and detailing his evil intentions for years on end if need be. Entire websites can be set up that purport to be run by al Qaeda but are in fact run by western intelligence operatives. The real problem here is not that the peace movement is dead but that the 9/11 attacks were manufactured and have created a false narrative which gives the peace movement nothing to work with. As long as people like Mr. Hedges refuse to confront what really went on that day in 2001 the peace movement has no narrative of its own: because questioning the war on terror is seen as incredibly dangerous and unpatriotic. ‘Look what happened on 9/11’, they cry, ‘We can’t end the war- it’s just too dangerous’. As the neo cons know only too well, and as Orwell knew too, as long as you have people asking the wrong questions you’ll go on winning. To ask ‘Where did the peace movement go?’ is manifestly one of those wrong questions. One of the right questions is, ‘Why did Dick Cheney start taking Cipro on the evening of 9/11?’ Over to you, Chris.

Inherit the Wind
You’re absolutely right in your point of it being the post Reagan radicalized GOP, and GOP spooks dressed as Democrats that were responsible for NAFTA, and for the erosion of “Glass Seagall” putting firmly in place the locked control of the Body Corporate.
Outsourcing America’s Production Base, was the last nail in the coffin for whatever was left of any New Deal. Kinder/Gentler was code for “Screw the place down and hook up the Vacuum cleaner to the vault”.
America has become so dumbed down on their freedom and potential for unity that it is now a higher priority to watch American Idol, or the Great Race, than it is to stand up for your eroded rights, or attend a March on the Capital demanding Peace and Prosperity for all.
At the end of the day though - we can blame the GOP and radicalized Conservatives for setting up and running the current Gulag, but the finger of blame can’t be pointed away from the American People for allowing this to occur. Spineless gets what spineless earns and deserves!

To Just Curious:

What Noam Chomsky means by being thankful that a charismatic leader has not appeared is that most of the leaders that have come along are corrupt and they usually just want money and to advance their careers and so on. If a charismatic leader comes along and is honest and just wants power, this leader could mobilize all of the negative anti-democratic forces in society and create a condition not unlike that of Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia.

To felicity

I read that draft played significant role in putting the Vietnam war to an end along with some major screw-ups by the administration.

Those who give up liberty for security deserve neither, everyone knows who said this. We can`t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them, everyone knows this too, Honest Abe, America cannot be defeated from an enemy outside, but, but only from within itself. this divide by economic military draft and the Mexicans rioting along our southern border, Oh Well! History repeating once more, Latinos will force martial law on everyone.Violence is a circle, We do here, they do there,NRA members meet Latino demonstrators head on! Don`t tread on me!
TEXAS TWO STEP AND Tennesse Waltz and here we dance with Arizona and Calif. Papers please….so What… If you got nothing to hide, then no problem. If your checking every car in the parking lot, papers please, if your hanging around school yard at recess and not of similar age, papers please,let`s get real profiling is an event not an opinion.
So military action in afghnistan only reflects the success of social perspective management. Yes between pills and entertainment, you will be wrapped pack-aged and shelved to meet a profitable outcome. Question does the initial intent have anything to do with the final out come, No income only out come or no come at all. Thankyou please feel free to read between the lines.

If a national vote on the war was held and 80%
or more voted-just on current war issue, the vote
would go against the war makers. So, the cogent and sad observations Hedges’ article make need annotation.

I learned that many of the war contractors
are not American- interesting. I wonder how
many. The main contract is subcontracted to
international “security companies”.

American killing with impunity is not new at all! American national policy has always been authoritarian and imperial. The use of military
means(killing, terror,intimidation) while
dismissing millions of persons as accidents,
just part of the costs, has been the rule.

We often hear from the killers the refrain, native members of Americas’ victim states were
stupid to be there(huh). Americans are so
numbed by constant war that our own historical facts are
ignored in most high schools.

Our leaders are habituated to a language that is
designed to lie, coverup and justify the
unjustifiable.  We are a nation lead by killers, and
those that justify them. That odd language and historical amnesia is needed. How else could
one, if human at all, get up in the morning and
show your face.

Many corporations, I suspect most, are not
cheering for war. This American disease
(butchery of weaker people) has more profound
roots than business organizations. The one
corporation, or sort of corporation that is
responsible is the massive military apparatus
and their control of the executive branch.

This authoritarian mindset expressed by
executive power goes back to colonial days.
Shays rebellion is an early example of force
from the top. We all need reminding that this
“force"has little trouble exercising on American
citizens, in the same way it is currently
operating on other nationals.

However, history does show the authoritarians
how precarious their perch is. Mass uprisings,
people, peasant, worker, revolts are great
social bloodlettings where the majority sacrificed
are the wealthy and powerful and those that aid
them.

So take heart Mr. hedges, the jury of history is
in deliberation and the judgement is yet to be
made.

I was wondering about what Noam Chomsky meant last week about being thankful an honest charismatic leader hasn’t appeared.  Why is that so dangerous or more dangerous than where we may or may not be headed?  I’m probably missing something glaring here.

The corporations control so much of our lives I doubt a charismatic leader would be free of control.  If/when the dollar hyper-inflates and becomes worthless, could this be an opportunistic window for change and a weakening of corporate power so that we can have a chance to collectively itemize our problems as a culture and society - a chance to dissolve the powerful institutional bureaucracies that are in the way of peak oil and all the other problems not being mitigated?  I guess people do nothing because they probably correctly think the problems are too deep with inertia and what can you do other than try to enlighten people around you?

Sorry for the grammar - comments appreciated.

It’s not that nobody cares, it’s just that those of us who see and are distressed by our country’s slow-motion suicide have experienced nothing during our lifetimes to make us believe that anything we do or say is going to make any difference.

The vast majority of Americans are content to take their daily bite out of the [same old same old] sandwich the military/corporate ruling class dishes up to them, they grovel and display their brown toothy [same old] eating grins, and they enthusiastically cheer that the [same old] sandwich tastes good. Most of them seem to believe what they say - they have never tasted anything else, or can’t remember. And they are afraid - if the boss cuts off their [same old] rations, what will they eat?

When will this change? Maybe never, and maybe not for a very, very long time. The ruling class has already cut off [same old] rations for most of the working class, with excellent results (for the ruling class): faced with destitution, homelessness and starvation, there is an endless supply of young people whose only prospect for getting that daily brown sustenance into their bellies is to sign up as a soldier or a military contractor. A little higher up the social scale, there are millions of young graduates whose best career prospect is in designing and building weapons and systems of surveillance and population control, or joining in the chorus of propagandizers otherwise known as the mainstream media. For ambitious young Americans at the top of the social ladder, success means a career spent gambling with other people’s savings, advising the big shots how to squeeze the last bloody cent of profit out of an outsourced, union-busted, destitute working class, and pitching for lucrative war contracts with corporate campaign contributions.

This country has been headed down the dead-end street of a war-based economy ever since 1945. The anti-Vietnam war movement put the brakes on for a few years, but ever since Reagan’s election in 1980 the foot of the political class has pushed the accelerator to the floor, as this country heads straight for a brick wall of financial, social and environmental collapse.

Obama can’t turn this ship around before it crashes, and he isn’t even trying. Real change will only come out of the successor societies that replace the United States after it collapses and breaks apart.

Is that tragic? Compared to the vision we are all taught about what this country is supposed to represent, it is a terrible tragedy. But the gulf between the mirage of a fair and democratic society we claim to believe in, and the reality of the military/corporate feudal state we live under but refuse to acknowledge, has grown so vast, that I find myself wishing above all for the widespread public recognition and expression of truth, even if it takes a total catastrophe to bring that about. I find it impossible to feel any sense of regret for the prospective loss of blood-sucking privileges our military/corporate now draw from the veins of a prostrate nation and a worldwide empire of subject peoples.

There are few things under the sun as ugly, vicious and evil as the military-industrial-financial clique that rules America today. They do not fear God’s judgment because they worship an unholy trinity: the Golden Bull Market, its Son, Endless War, and the mystical forces of its Unseen Hand. The state religion of the USA is Capitalism; its temples and high priests are on Wall Street. They have oppressed us with burdens and made us serve them.

We are as powerless to oppose the evil reign of these idol worshippers as were the Hebrew slaves of Egypt, but we can be delivered from them if we wholly renounce their idolatrous religion of Capitalism and commit ourselves to God. Let us walk together hand in hand out of the land of bondage and let us celebrate when God dashes our Capitalist oppressors in pieces and casts them into the sea.

Real political Liberals are not the problem.  The problem is with those members of the populace who really don’t know what a real liberal is and think conservative is liberal and liberal is conservative.  The Right-Wing’s Conservative EXTREMISTS and the toadies to the Right-Wing Conservative EXTREMISTS that infest the Left-Wing is the problem.  If the populace will register as Democrats and converge on the Democratic Party and restore the Democratic Party to represent the populace the problem will be solved, but until the populace comes out of their delusion of thinking Right-Wing Republican Conservatives are a benefit to the populace, there isn’t a chance.  The GOP has no interest in the populace at all other than for slaves and serfs and Republicans represent the GOP.

Now lets see.  Maybe the problem is progressives marginalizing those who ask real questions about the world changing events. “Most of the audience of about 70 were peace activists who, as is usual at such events, were joined by a motley collection of conspiracy theorists who believe 9/11 was an inside job or that former Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash, was assassinated.”  But then we say “Those who decry the corporate coup are locked out of the national debate and become as marginalized as Kucinich.”

WTF!?!  No wonder no one cares.

“The unfortunate reality is that Rep. Schakowsky knows that the war industry is bipartisan. They give on both sides. For a while there it seemed contractor was the new Israel. You could not find a member of Congress to speak out against them because so many members of Congress are beholden to corporate funding to keep their House or Senate seats. I also think Obama’s election has wiped that out, as it has with many things”…exactly – Obama’s election put paid to any lingering chance of electoral hope and change, and you didn’t need 20/20 hindsight to finally figure it out, it was obvious from all the signals all throughout the dreary campaign. Not that it dawned on Rep. Schakowsky, who was a big Barackista right from the start, and hails from the same Chicago Democratic machine political culture as the man himself. After the big O’s state of the union pep rally in January, Schakowsky reaffirmed her faith in the sod, declaring, “Barely a year into his presidency, while millions of Americans face hardships unlike any seen in generations, President Obama laid out a plan to restore faith in government and move the country further down the path of recovery. In this historic speech… His call to prevent Wall Street greed from further hurting the middle class and request to hold overzealous executives accountable for their actions send a strong message that the practices of the last decade will no longer be tolerated.” Schakowsky never mentioned that her husband, Robt. Creamer pleaded guilty to multi-million dollar bank fraud charges in ’05, stemming from his own greed at his Illinois Public Action Fund ‘public interest group’; where his crusading wife made her reputation as a great consumer advocate. Schakowsky made an even more contemptible statement a couple of weeks ago which, regardless of what contractor has become, underscored that Israel is still Israel in Congress. Schakowsky oozed, “Madam Speaker, [Schakowsky too, is a close confidant of Pelosi] I rise to honor the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Jewish State of Israel.  Israel has weathered decades of war and terrorism but it remains a thriving democracy and America’s closest friend and ally in the Middle East. As a very young child, I remember the immense pride and joy my family felt when the Jewish State became a reality.  I had the privilege of traveling once again to Israel earlier this month, and again I was struck by the resilience, courage, and innovation of the Israeli people, as well as their pride in the beautifully lush country they have built in the desert…  Just minutes after the declaration of the founding of the State of Israel, President Harry Truman recognized that country and it began a 62-year-long commitment, non-partisan, bipartisan – universal throughout our country – recognizing the importance of our relationship with the State of Israel. I believe that this Congress of the United States maintains that dedication and will forever more. Thank you.” Oh no, Rep. Schakowsky, thank you! “The unfortunate reality is that Rep. Schakowsky knows that” the Lobby “is bipartisan. They give on both sides” (pro-Israel groups were one of her top five industry contributors in the ’09-10 election cycle). Schakowsky has never met an Israeli funding bill she didn’t like. “The July 2007 Apache helicopter attack on Iraqi civilians depicted on the video recently” has been going on for years in Palestine thanks to sleazebags like Schakowsky.

Financial industry warlords seeking to maximize their profits at the expense of America’s poor and working-class and anyone who gets in their way, along with a corporate political duopoly that competes for their coveted campaign dollars are locked together in a death spiral that is destroying the hopes and dreams—the lives—of tens of millions of Americans along with the representative democracy whose whole purpose was to represent their interests.

This is war. We The People should treat is as such.

Leefeller, May 3 at 12:23 pm #

In the end,.... Hedges premise “No One Cares’, seems
true enough, but from what I see, contrived to be that
way.
************************************************

Who Cares?

( )

In some ways, this has been the most successful ‘peace movement’ in American history.

The ‘Peace Movement’ has succeeded in that it has convinced a huge majority of Americans that we should end the Iraq war and come home.  And it has also convinced a majority, smaller but nonetheless a majority, that we should also end the war in Afghanistan and come home.

This is a huge success for a peace movement, and why I call this the most successful peace movement in American history.

If America was a democracy, these wars would already be over.  That’s where the crisis is.  Is not that the ‘peace movement’ has failed or is non-existant.  Its that in a government that refuses to listen to the will of the people that it has failed to end the wars.

The problem is that America needs a ‘democracy movement’, and that’s what’s largely non-existent in America today.  The ‘peace movement’ has done all it can until such a larger ‘democracy movement’ emerges.

When we get back to the point where America is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, the wars will end as the people already desire that.

On another note:  The heading “Noone Cares” is inaccurate and does not strike at the main problem, in my opinion.  Thousands, probably millions, of people everywhere “care” and wish the “wars would stop”. Most of them have no way to help make it happen because the war-makers (MIC etc., including the U.S. government) have cut themselves off and do not permit public access.
  The war-makers, however, are running downhill within the confines of their own prejudices (mainly greed, fear and ignorance) and therefore any input from outside their sphere is too threatening.  Which means that, in spite of appearing invincible, they are actually weak, confused, uncertain and afraid.
  Challenging a fearful entity is very dangerous because to expose fear to the fearful is to bring down a huge house of cards pretending to be invincible.
  If this were not so, the MIC would welcome input, would reward ideas for how to right wrongs and provide more stability. 
  This is rather a new problem—the impervious wall between the people and their (once democratic) government. The secret of success for a nonviolent change may be to find a way to climb over this wall and come down on the inside with non-threatening news of how a vast economic structure can be changed from dependency on war to dependency on non-war production.
  There are people who can speak intelligently to this issue.  They need to hold hearings in the Rayburn Bldg. every day for a month.  Call it “Teach-In for Survival” and have at it!  The peace movement is not dead, it is just sleeping because it is tired being too small to fight something that is “too big to fail.”

diman - sometimes they do ‘work.’ Were you around during the Vietnam, so-called, War? It took a while and it was probably when the military boots-on-the-ground in Nam finally got (vocally) sick of the whole mess and began to support our demonstrations that the US pulled out.

Trite but true, a snowflake never thinks it causes an avalanche either.

It is really hard to “keep hope alive.”  The worse things get, the harder it becomes to believe—to create the courage to have faith (in spite of lack of evidence) that somehow, somewhere, sometime someone will do something that changes the picture for the better.  Then, at last! to everyone’s surprise, “the people” come into their own and find a way to work things out so they can survive.

It is really hard to “keep hope alive.”  But without hope—there is no hope.  Keep hope alive!

I might as well get my two cents
Cris, as you well can see, most on these blogs care quite
a bit.  Times have changed,  the major media doesn’t
report news,  they pick different sides of the duopoly
and confuse what the issues really are, it has always
been just a small percentage that has had the time or
interest to scratch the surface…then

All social movements in my lifetime have been
self-interest movements.. such as the anti-draft and
civil rights movements (once they removed King).
The masses ain’t hurting enough yet, middle America,
apparently. Most of those demonstrating against Vietnam,
weren’t so worried about the Vietnamese, but about them
getting drafted and their own skins. Protest stopped just
as soon as the draft stopped.
When the food prices and the gasoline prices start
jumping where few can afford to eat, you will see
angry people in the street.
To all those good people that still believe in the
electoral process to get us out of this mess, 
you must still believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Clause,
and the Easter Bunny.

As LBJ said; when you’ve got ‘em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow. People are so afraid of losing what little they’ve got, that they dare not protest. It just takes one visit to someone’s job site by the cops “investigating” a possible breach of the peace to cause the pencil-neck manager to fire the perp involved. And what will his family do then?

Shit it took Chris Hedges and the so-called “intellectuals” quite some time to understand that the peace marches and protests do not work, the political action itself is dead, nobody gives a flying fuck about the wars being fought overseas, everybody is busy twittering and updating their fucking profiles on the facebook, lets face it, if there is a global conspiracy by the ruling class to dumb the masses down with these meaningless activities - they have succeded.

We were not all “seduced,” Mr. Hedges.  *You* may have been, but others of us have always known that Iraqis, like any other individuals, are innocent until they are proven guilty.

When she cast her pro-war vote, Hillary Clinton was an attorney.  As an attorney, she voted—on no evidence—for the US military to carry out the death penalty against innocent (because they’d never been tried) Iraqis.  Hillary Clinton practiced extreme rendition upon herself: She rendered herself unable to serve her constituents, and to impeach the evidenceless Bush, unless she also impeached herself as a witness…and did that first.

The alternative to the above description of Hillary Clinton is worse: She was dumber than Bush.  She’d have to have been, in order to have been taken in by him.

We’re up shit creek, and we’ll remain there as long as professionals like yourself are unwilling to attribute responsibility to the people to whom it belongs.  Don’t you understand: Your ideal reader is someone who’s serving in the US military.  You are blaming the victim.

I don’t think the situation exists where americas don’t care about what is happening. The culture and social make up of america has programmed people to be selfish and self centered. Many if not most americas are either caught up in their own personal survival, chasing materialism, chasing selfish desires, or diverted into fantasy with video games, drugs, or watching sporting events that promote the escape from reality. This effect on society of how people live life has fragmented society and created a lack of any kind of unity. So activism doesn’t exist because everyone lives basically in isolation in their own little worlds of comfort or distress. Unfortunately, the result of the condition of our society has put people in individual comfort zones. People that are comfortable don’t want to rock the boat and risk disrupting those zones. Unless the society breaks down and forces individuals out of their comfort zones, activism for change will be difficult to obtain.  The status quo will continue until chaos occurs, which in turn would possibly lead to a united activism for true change. Unfortunately, for this to happen, great suffering will have to occur on a very large scale. But if true chaos occurs the outcome could be better or worse for society depending what type of leadership arises during the crisis. Americans are so caught up in thier personal lives that they don’t make the time, or take the time, or are too stupid to see the matrix in which we live. As long as people can be scared and fear their own demise, tactics can be implemented to limit our rights, freedoms, and morality in the name of security.

So once again we are led to the grassy knoll. via the
wars suck like the people promoting them story. 

Yes the wars suck, the military mentality sucks as does
Goldman Saks, the coal industry, the oil industry and
Wall Mart. Far as I know only one employee has died at a
Wal Mart store, having been trampled to death by
apathyists during a sale.

Apathy is their for a reason, people on the street are
trying to make a buck, while the Corporate opportunists
make more money than most people can comprehend. Is this
bad?  Well, as a person on the street who would feel
better if I was apathetic, possibly I could feel better
about things and say someday; I too may be wealthy; but
I don’t think it is in the cards for me, as I do not
work so hard as those CEO’s and other big buck makers
like Tiger Woods and movie stars, and the politicians,
keeping track and counting ones wealth must be grueling
work.

In the end,.... Hedges premise “No One Cares’, seems
true enough, but from what I see, contrived to be that
way.

At present the US has 700 military bases world-wide.  Perhaps necessary??? in some countries, but are they really necessary in the likes of Germany, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain… - all countries that can well afford to protect themselves?

Of course not.  Costs the US a small fortune maintaining those bases when, in fact, it ends up we are allowing these countries to allocate the money we’re saving them - by ‘funding’ their defense - to things like education, infra-structure and all that good stuff.

So why?  Because we’ve got an insatiable military/industrial complex which can never and will never lose its appetite for every dollar it can extort from the discretionary budget.  Wars are their mother’s milk and when they end, unfortunately for the complex, they’re replaced with bases.  We’ll never be ‘out’ of Afghanistan or Iraq.

Fear and despair, once having ended up there, are all there is to bring up some “hopey-changey” once your spirits have been dashed. I’m remembering Viet Nam protests, where we youngsters then, had our asses kicked in the streets worse and worse until, with Kent State, and Jackson State, some were gunned down by those who enlisted in the National Guard (so they wouldn’t get drafted to Viet Nam) and state police, in the case of the latter. I know some struck back at the monstrous Empire that had just removed the velvet glove and left no alternatives in Viet Nam other than total military defeat, and with shootings at home, no more protesting. Remember how the nut jobs wanted to drop the big one on SE Asia? Now the Middle East sees the threat of nuclear weapons and if that prospect doesn’t cause hopelessness and despair, well I guess you just ain’t hopelessey-despairey, because nuclear winter will certainly redirect that entire global warming climate changey thing that the nincompoops laugh at daily. Now the total destruction of the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico faces the country, as the juicy dead of past eons blow free and we continue to destroy ourselves with CO2 and methane gasses, and other poisons so numerous that despair is the human response. With notable hubris and law suits and endless Federal Reserve Notes, this nightmarish reality is talked about like one more technical challenge with money to be gleaned in the “clean up” business. How’s that staying willfully stupidy thing working out for us, huh? So despair and hopelessness has to get pretty down home for Americans to do any damn thing. Isn’t it the Rebel, the one who sees no alternatives once the wall is at his back and survival is all that matters, clutching guns and Bible in white knuckled desperation, practicing that hopelessness and despair?

Hedges’s most outstanding error was to declare that, because the corporate mass media are pro-war and right-wing, the Left has no means of communication.  It has a tremendous means, called “The Internet”.  We know Hedges doesn’t like the Internet, but there it is anyway.

One reason there is no substantial anti-war movement is that the Democrats have pretty thoroughly infiltrated the leadership structure of the big anti-war organizations like UFPJ; hence, when people from the Green Party wanted to plan a big demonstration for this spring, they were deflected and finally refused.  The Democrats controlling UFPJ are simply not going to allow a Democratic president to be embarrassed.

If people want to “lead” an anti-war movement, it’s their job to come up with solutions to this kind of problem, not just cry about it as Hedges does.  Or maybe you all enjoy crying.

Once again, hedges writes ab the symptoms-effects only and not ab THE FIRST CAUSE of these effects.

I postulate that the first cause for all warfare, exploitation, abuse of people on interpersonal level is initial division of people into, broadly, less-valued and more-valued.

In US, a few powerful families have divided people into first,second, third, and, broadly, fourth class.
Mind u, such an iniquitous structure had already been setup and at the latest with the rise of sumerian city-states.

We cld then affirm that until 20th century we had everywhere only privately-owned governance.
So,‘private’ army, spy agencies, regular army are in fact all private.

Add to that the congres, judiciary, media, education, [dis]information, and one sees the awesomeness of this total privatiozation of a country.

Any iniquitous structure of society can be viewed as a natural event; as natural as cancer,foolds, wars,wife beating, storms, etc.

And we often take appropriate steps to prevent or cure cancer,floods,hunger, aggressions, etc.

Alas, not to lessen or prevent the ravages of an inquitous society like that of india and US.
However, there is now more talk than ever ab the damage US structure of society causes to most americans.
There is even at least two partys which are working for a better life for all americans.

I do affirm that if present US structure of society [the first and only cause for US maladies]remains, expect more negative and severe symptoms and not less.

Kucinich, hedges appear to be offside for lessening the division of people. tnx

Many moons ago, on another blog, I suggested that if the U.S. reinstated a draft the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would come to a swift end. I was then accused of being a Nazi, a Fascist, a Racist, an Elitist….my, oh my…I was accused of being things I’ve never heard of.

But the most disturbing backlash came from those who believed (sincerely) that the draft would be nothing more than a way to oppress minorities and the poor (as was the case in Vietnam). I think this view is misguided. I believe plenty of minorities and poor Americans volunteer because of the promise of a better life.

Well, unfortunately, not having a draft has created an environment in which Americans have NO SKIN IN THE GAME. No wonder no one cares.

Let me list Chris Hedges’ falsehoods:
“We are approaching a decade of war in Afghanistan”
Considering the invasion took place Oct 7, 2001, it’s now a year and a half short of a decade—15%. Statistical significance is either at 1% or 5%

“We sustain these wars, which have no real popular support, by borrowing trillions of dollars”
Trillions, Chris?  We’ve borrowed trillions, but not for the wars.  Can you document this??

“Liberals, whose children are more often to be found in elite colleges than the Marine Corps, did not fight the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and the dismantling of our manufacturing base.”
Wasn’t the NAFTA supposed to help the poor nations and open up markets?
The dismantling of our manufacturing base began in 1982 under Ronald Reagan by giving a huge tax break to corporations for opening off-shore manufacturing facilities.  This was combined with Reagan’s crushing of PATCO as the GOP war on unions. It wasn’t liberals, it was GOPers.

“They did nothing when the Democrats gutted welfare two years later”
Two years later was 1996.  The GOP had swept control of Congress and Clinton was struggling to win re-election. Gutting welfare was the hallmark of the Contract With America, by the GOP, not the Democrats.  Hedges forgets that Clinton was getting done what could be done, but blames him for not getting legislation through Congres that NO democrat could have gotten through in 1996.

Yet again Hedges makes false assumptions to prove his point.  This is getting offensive. How did this guy get to be a “respected” journalist if he cannot get simple facts straight?

Yes it is all true, and we are well on our way to war with Iran, which will mean World War Three.

Millions of dead and dying, weapons of Mass destruction used in the United States, bankrupcy and balkinization for the South West United States.

Psyops controlling the response of the masses who argue over the details of their demise. Billons of Dollars spent by the plutocracy, ensuring that congress remains in their power and control.

While the Bloods, the Crips, and Monsanto continue to bleed us and murder us, our reckless foreign policy focues on protecting us from suspects, who are killed by drones, without trial and in violation of international law. 

The plutocracy picks and choices it’s targets based on the dollar sign, and there are is no one left to stop them.

Those that survive the conming conflagration will envy the dead, and curse our remains.

***********************

Well, what you’re saying here Chris, is that when all the w & dick
administration declared the u.s. would be there, and probably
other theaters, for 50yrs or maybe 100yrs, then that is how long
the u.s. will be there. Probably because the whole agenda was
crafted and the pieces put in place( msm, military, wall street,
corporate america, congress and just how much more does o
have to do to prove his role in this strategy). But above all, and
this shows how well the PNAC was planned and how well it is
working because it sure seems to have the dumbstream people
so lackadaisical about the whole crap shoot because the MSM
keeps this segment ‘glued’ to their hdtv that they haven’t the
time or a clue to worry with the rest of the country or the world.

Maybe it begs this question, or not, but how can an intelligent
person or species become so far removed from its own species
that it will resort to mass repression and genocide. That can
really be answered by looking at the ridiculousness of the
unfettered growth of humans and the fight, now, for resources
to survive.

And this criminal breach to the public and the ‘SOOO far
removed from humanity’ of those intellectual prejudicial racial
thugs’ then I believe that intelligence must be a hard wired part
of what will include humans in the next upcoming ‘extinction
level event’, ELE. You can’t shit in home or destroy your home
and hope to survive. Too smart for our own good.

The 9/11 tragedy WAS an insider job. I said it, I stand by that, so criminy
Hedges, don’t I get to play? Not “good” enough? You know Hedges, I really hate
that elitist arrogant crap. Kucinich is a smarmy little backstabbing weasel. He’ll
sell your momma out for $1.98. Screw Kucinich. I said it, I stand by that, and so
I guess I don’t get to play. Liberals? Fuck liberals. Arrogant, elitist, over-
indulgent boobs. Too freaking busy with the day spas and Starbucks and
trending stylish in the old Subaru. Isn’t Chuck ‘shomer’ Schumer supposed to
be a liberal? Israeli suckass for sure. So yeah, I said it, I stand by it, and yeah
here comes the “you’re an anti-semite son-of-a-bitch!” Yeah Ackerman, I
heard you the first time.
What is your point Hedges? The war is simply now the status quo. The long war
of terror is on and will be ad nauseum far into a starkly bleak future. Everybody
is screaming and nobody is listening. Well, some are screaming but no one is
listening. Too goddamn busy with life, the universe, war, and everything.
“They” won. The corporate war machine has ground down opposition. Obama is
the happy-slappy face of the war machinery and the sheeple are on their way
to DisneyWorld.
Shotguns will sing the song soon enough. Martial law will be heralded as
salvation for ‘we the people’ and life will stumble forward in complacent
obedience to idiocy.
I pray to God Hedges, you really don’t believe the “official” versions about
9/11…do you? Well, don’t get all uppity about some of “us” that find the entire
bullshit explanations to be…BULLSHIT!

I don’t think Chris is really against conspiracy theorists pygmy. Even Mr. Hedges is constrained, I believe, as to his writing about conspiracies. His enemies would use it as ammunition against him. Rather, his point was the pathetic turnout that such an event did draw.

ardee writes, “...there is an unrest and an undying motivation to correct the course of this ship of state among our population…”.

I suggest that the only “rudder” staunch enough to alter the present course is armed insurrection/revolution and even then, with the “rudder” off center, the ship of state will come full circle. A hundred years after the “little people” take back the country, these columns will fill with a virtual echo of what we’re reading today.

Those with the real power will NEVER give it up willingly. Read history, learn, AND GET READY TO REPEAT IT.

ardee: Mr. Hedges is correct is saying that people don’t really care. Where is the cause for hope that you so gallantly put forth? Mainstream media has become a circus. Are such events as the one Chris Hedges attended really covered? Are the facts concerning the statistics of the costs of the Afghanistan war and the number of government-funded personnel in Afghanistan really reported on mainstream media? Of course not. The corporate elite seem to always be one step ahead, anticipating what will wake up the people and taking steps to alleviate that possibility.  Outsourcing the functions of government to for-profit corporations was one such clever move. It serves several purposes. Wars fought for the good of the power/elite are less scrutinized; there is no draft and citizens are not as aroused as they were during the Vietnam war when their sons were asked to do the fighting. Also, private contractors are more free to do the dirty work of war and real costs of such wars are not as evident. Chris Hedges brings all this out in his excellent writing style that some on these threads deem “ranting and raving.” Well, there is something to rant and rave about. Also, the “middle of the road” outlook that other posters advocate is just not the place to be right now, not if you wish freedom in this country to continue.  The outrageous clown-like antics and behavior of Rush and Beck divert people from the real issues, exactly what corporate power wants.  At the end of the day citizens would rather wrap themselves up in the flag and take comfort in our military might. Where is the Walter Cronkite of our times? We do not have one because msm has eliminated such anchors; nightly news is beholding to the corporate/elite. One has to read books that are not on the best seller list of the New York Times to really know what is going on. Most citizens are not willing to dig, they are zombies who gladly accept as fact the news that msm dishes out. After all, let’s face it, Chris Hedges is not the entertainer that Beck and others on Fox are. People like Fox news and that is really cause for despair.

While I usually find myself in agreement with Hedges -
despite being significantly more optimistic than him,
I have to point out the following misleading
statement. (I love arguments)

“104,000 Department of Defense contractors alongside
68,000 U.S. troops”

This line leaves the reader believing there are
104,000 private mercenary murderers like Blackwater
running rampant. The fact is, many (probably most) of
the private DoD contractors are there for utility
purposes. Services usually filled by enlisted men -
cooking, cleaning, building, mechanical repair, etc. -
are privately contracted. Even linguists and mentors
who teach budgeting and strategic planning to Iraqi
government officials are privately employed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401311.html

Hey Chris- why the dig at Conspiracy Theorists?  How do you think they get away
with this shit?  Mass Trauma.  Have you looked at the evidence for the official
conspiracy theory on 9/11?  It’s a massive lie- conspiracy theory is just common
sense.

Talk to Richard Gage or David Ray Griffin, log onto Global Research.  Get a grip. 
Yer almost as bad as Cockburn or Chomsky.  Take some time and LOOK AT THE
EVIDENCE.  Maybe you won’t be so snide about people who are your allies.

If the US did not use contractors they would need to reinstitute the draft.  If there was a draft the American people would revolt.  A revolution would stop the war machine.

It is in the best interest of the military to keep the public passive.

I know a mild mannered boy who returned from Iraq as an activist.  He slashes the tires of Hummers and huge SUV’s.  He does this because, after serving, he realized he was fighting, and his friends died, for oil.  He is angry.  I wish the media would report on the vets.

Politics is cyclic as any study of our history proves. Thus one should not give in to the despair that seems part and parcel to this unfortunate article.

I would not quibble with the facts that Mr. Hedges so articulately enumerates but certainly refuse to succumb to any suggestion of hopelessness. Certainly the progressive movement is betrayed by our President, at least that segment of the left who actually believed Obama to be a savior. Surely the media is dominated by the ideology of the right and our government enslaved by the military industrial complex which, mirroring our financial sector, puts profit above morality, truth and love of country. All true enough I think.

But , there is an unrest and an undying motivation to correct the course of this ship of state among our population, at least among those who are out there trying, however desperately,to make a difference. If one is a sincere activist, rather than an armchair pundit content to remain at home posting in fora as a substitute for real political action, then one knows for sure that he/she is not alone in working for change.

Fear and despair are not tools of change, and , if you believe, as do I, that this nation is worth saving from itself then this current mess should motivate rather than enervate.

Kucinich is a joke as well, let’s be honest. He talks a good game, but when the healthcare vote put him in the spotlight he shrunk and voted in favor of turning us all into corporate healthcare customers by force.